The Last Temptation
by jtav
Summary: Five years after the defeat of the conspiracy, Akira has moved on-mostly. But when Sae needs his help to prove in a court of law that Shadows and Personas exist, the two embark on a cross-country journey to do just that. Falling in love would be a very bad idea. Especially when Leviathan still lingers and a mysterious voice tells Akira he should have taken the demiurge's offer.
1. Chapter 1

" _I want to make another bet."_

 _"The last one did not go well for you."_

 _"Pesky, miserable humans, but they won't keep themselves from destruction forever. And that's what I want to wager. You talk so much about potential, but let's see how strong your champions really are."_

 _"What did you have in mind?"_

 _"Something small-scale this time. Just two human lives. Two your Igor and that cat-thing chose. I want to prove your precious Wild Cards can go mad."_

 _"I would have thought the detective would have proved that."_

 _"No, Philemon. I want to test one of yours. Let's see whether the Phantom Thief Of Hearts regrets his choice."_

* * *

 _The Phantom's cape billowed dramatically in the wind as Catherine clung to him. Her blonde hair whipped behind her._ Akira stifled a groan and backspaced as the train sped towards the station. Way too melodramatic. He'd struck gold with a book contract when the ink was barely dry on his degree—Ann and Yuuki's doing—but the American publisher insisted that young adult fantasies didn't sell without a love interest, no matter how cool the hero was supposed to be. It was giving him a headache. Make a sociopath feel remorse? Defeat a power-hungry god? No problem. Write a romance? That was apparently beyond even Joker.

His smartphone vibrated, and Akira glanced at the screen. Ryuji. He took the call. "How's the track team?"

"Better than ever!" Ryuji's voice was so loud that Akira had to hold the phone away from his ear. "The guys are so enthusiastic. No injuries worse than a sprained ankle. Nothing like the old days." He quieted slightly. "I think I like coaching."

"You're great at it." Most of them had transitioned from the days of the Phantom Thieves to normal life about as well as could be expected but Ryuji had blossomed, even if he would tell Akira to leave the flower metaphors to Yusuke. "Ann doing okay?"

"Yeah. She's got some kind of marketing thing in Kyoto but she'll be back on Friday. Speaking of which…" His voice turned sly and Akira winced. Ryuji using that tone was never a good thing. "Can I talk you into joining us for tofu on Sunday? You've been back in the city for forever but we really haven't had a chance to hang out. And…"

"And?" Akira braced himself for the inevitable.

"And Ann told me to tell you they hired a bunch of fresh level designers for the new Sonic game. And that she was hoping you'd come over and meet one of them. She just moved here from the States, so she doesn't know anybody." His voice dropped further, to a conspiratorial whisper. "She's really cute."

Akira raked his free hand through his hair. He loved his friends. He was happy Ryuji and Ann were together, really. But he would rather face down Caroline, Justine, and Yaldaboath all at once than endure another blind date. "I'll pass."

"Come on, a guy like you can't stay single forever. Have you been on a date at all lately? You can't mope over Hifumi forever."

"I'm not moping. It just didn't work out. And it's not like they give you a lot of free time at university. I was spending every free second analyzing haikus. And then I got this contract and, well, I'll start dating again when I've actually got space to breathe." That was the truth, mostly. He had liked Hifumi, maybe even loved her. But a couple of months in juvenile hall, regular long-distance, and the insanity that was surviving at university would put a strain on even the best relationships. They'd amicably decided to see other people. She even sent him clippings about her shogi career. If his chest clenched every time he saw Ann and Ryuji sneaking off to make out or pretending that they totally weren't scoping out possible wedding locations, well there were worse fates.

"You have got to get a girlfriend."

"When I'm ready." He powered down his laptop. "This is my stop. Tell Ann that I'll be happy to come over as long as there's no matchmaking." He hung up.

Someone had once told him that the Japanese rail system was the envy of the world; Akira had set his watch by the trains more than once. But every nearly perfect system had its problems, and some of them made him wish he could don a mask just one more time.

The woman was two spaces in line ahead of him, about his own age and dressed just like every other office worker who wanted to get home. Completely unremarkable. That didn't stop the guy behind her from grabbing her ass and squeezing. She made a sound like someone had punched her. The other passengers pretended not to see. It happened every day, after all. But the really bad thing about being a recovering hero was that you couldn't go back to not seeing. "Apologize," he said through gritted teeth. "Are you all right, miss?"

"Fine, fine." Her voice was all breath, and her gaze darted around for the nearest exit.

But her assailant rounded on him. He was balding, his suit a size too small for him. "I was just having a little harmless fun. I've had a rough day."

"I don't think it's harmless to her. "

"She could probably use the attention. Not like people like her have guys lining up around the block."

"Not men like you." Her voice was stronger now. "I have standards."

The crowd around them had stilled. Groping might be an unfortunate fact of life on the trains, but this was a scandal, something that would be told and retold in the cafés and karaoke bars for the rest of the week. The man's face turned red. "I, well I, how dare you!" But he balled his hands into fists, and they stayed there.

Akira and the woman looked at each other. She was pale and breathing hard. "Thank you for your help. Most people wouldn't have."

Heat spread across his cheeks. "No problem."

As if to prove her point, the crowd surged around them and Akira caught broken bits of whispers. _"It was only a man being a man." "She must've done something." "They ought to have the decency to keep it private."_ She flushed again and bowed her head.

Akira ground his teeth. He had defeated a conspiracy that threatened to bring Japan back to the nightmare of totalitarianism, brought justice to those who believed they were above it, and defeated a god who would have enslaved or destroyed the world, but the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. A man felt entitled to grope a woman because she existed. A boy who stole a candy bar was put on probation, but a CEO who stole millions from the investors walked away with slight embarrassment. People pretended not to know that the men who bought the pleasure of a teenage girl's time got far more than that. Every once in a while, like today, he could shame one person. But it was like trying to hold back a flood with a dam the size of a toothpick.

 _And whose fault is that?_ asked a voice that Akira had never heard before. _You could have taken the demiurge up on its offer. You could have ruled the city or the world. Made them behave._

Akira looked around wildly. There were fewer than thirty people who knew the identity of the Phantom Thieves; maybe half of them knew about Yaldaboath. None of them were on this train. His breath came hard and fast. "Our job was to stop humans from being enslaved; not to do it ourselves."

"Who are you talking to?" the woman asked.

"No one," he muttered. "Long day."

 _Some freedom. See what they do with it._

He shook his head and made his way onto the sidewalk with the rest of humanity. It was never a good thing to hear voices no one else could. He took out his phone again and told himself that he just wanted to be sure. There was no sign of the MetaVerse app. And without that, there could be no more forays into the collective unconscious or forcing the wicked to face the justice they had perverted. He couldn't bring back the Phantom Thieves even if he wanted to. Which he didn't.

He belonged solely to the world of flesh and blood now, and his flesh-and-blood friends needed his help.

Sae had called him yesterday for the first time since he had returned to Tokyo, saying only that she had taken on a client who could benefit from his "unique perspective" and could he please come by her office as quickly as possible so they could discuss it in person? He took out the business card, worn and crinkled from the years, and double-checked the address. The building itself was a newer high-rise, all glass and steel that pointed upward like a sword. The interior was similar: marble floors and a sculpture that was supposed to represent something but mostly just looked like a child had been playing with a hammer and chisel and men and women in the latest fashions worrying about their business. On the rare occasions a case went all the way to trial, the prosecution almost always won. A defense attorney mostly tried to convince the opposition that they didn't have enough evidence and might risk the shame of losing. Any lawyer who could get and keep an office in a place like this was very good at her job. Sae had occupied this space for five years.

"Ms. Niijima has been expecting you," said the secretary with gold-rimmed glasses and what seemed like a permanent scowl as he ushered Akira into the back office on the twenty-first floor. It was more old-fashioned than the rest of the building. Dark wood paneling, an equally dark and imposing desk, and chairs with upholstery in various neutral colors. A massive window dominated one wall, and Akira sucked in a breath. The sun was almost down, bathing Tokyo in red and gold and softening the harsh edges of concrete and steel. This, this had been worth fighting for, no matter what the voices in his head said.

"It is quite the view," Sae said as she turned to face him.

Some part of his brain registered that she had changed very little in the intervening years. There were fresh lines around her eyes, but she wore the same stylish, severe blazer and silver necklace and lapel pin that glittered like stars in darkness. His mouth turned dry. She watched him with the half-smile and arched eyebrow of a woman who knew more than she was letting on, who like him had tried to hold onto her honor while keeping her head above water. A woman who had fought her demons—literally—and had come out victorious. A woman who was, in short, beautiful.

Akira rocked back on his heels. Beautiful. Not a word he had associated with her five years ago. She had been the enemy then, a woman with the power to condemn him to juvenile hall if he made one wrong step. Who had interrogated him after he had been beaten and drugged. Who he had fought and then helped save. Who had then saved his life. Not a woman he should be attracted to, but the sparks danced along his skin all the same. Now it was Ryuji's voice in his head. It had been so long since he had had a girlfriend. He needed to start dating again. Somehow he doubted that this was who Ryuji had in mind.

"I heard about the book deal," she continued. Her voice was different than he remembered. Nervous, almost tentative. "Young adult fantasy, was it? Good for you." Her gaze flickered downward for a fraction of a second. "I was worried for a while about what those months in confinement would do to you."

"Had to be done. Shido is rotting where he belongs." Which had made the months staring at the white walls and being treated as if he were one breath away from becoming a monster any easier.

 _You could have avoided all that. But no, you had to be a hero._

"You needed my help?" he asked.

She relaxed, breathed a sigh of relief, and gestured for him to sit. A thick file folder sat on the desk. Inside was a mug shot of a man in his thirties: slightly overweight, shabbily dressed—and with an expression of utter confusion and terror. "Hachiro Sato. Married for ten years, three children between the ages of two and six. He stabbed them to death and was found kneeling over their bodies, sobbing and with the knife still in his hand. No known motive, but the prosecutor expects to seek the death penalty. Open and shut case."

After everything he'd seen with Goro and Shido, he shouldn't be shocked in the depths of depravity that parents could inflict on their children, but his mind recoiled at the thought of a two-year-old begging her father not to kill him. "I hope he ha—" Reason overtook rage. "Wait. You wouldn't call me for an open and shut case. You wouldn't take an open and shut case." His eyes widened. "You wanted my 'special expertise.' You think Shadows are involved."

"I do." She flipped to another page of the dossier. "Mr. Sato was known to be an exemplary family man and philanthropist. Extensive investigation hasn't produced any evidence of antisocial behavior before this. Ordinarily, I would say he's just another sociopath whose good at hiding it, but he's been almost catatonic since then. Insofar as I've been able to talk to him, he speaks of darkness and voices and appears to have no memory of the murderers themselves. Exactly like those Goro drove insane."

Akira exhaled. The idea that someone else had the power to ruin as many lives as Goro had made him sick. "He only had that power because Yaldaboath gave it to him, and the demon seemed pretty clear that it was a game with two sides. You're telling me there some other cosmic sadist out there?" Sweat formed on his hands. There was another possibility. Goro had broken so many people without thought or care, but Shido had broken him, too. He had been Akira's friend. "Do you think Goro could be alive?"

"You have a talking cat. Anything is possible. But I don't think it's likely." Her voice softened, the same tone she had used with him so long ago when she had told him that he would have to turn himself in. "You're a kinder person than me to pity him. But then, I never was very good at being kind. But you know that too."

He swallowed. None of them liked to talk about it, but there had always been an intimacy between the Phantom Thieves and their targets; seeing someone's deepest desires, fears, and sins and forcing them to feel remorse. Most of them had been such monsters that he had tried to put his time in the Palaces out of his mind and moved on. But Sae wasn't a monster; she had believed him and saved his life. So seeing the Leviathan—that tarted up reject from a fetish nightclub, seething and pulsing with envy and bitterness—stirred something within him, just like Yuuki and Futaba's shadows had stirred something within him. His hand snaked out to cover hers. "Everybody's got a dark side. You, me. Everybody. It's choosing to do the right thing that matters."

They both looked down. Her thumb peeked out from under his palm. Violet. The only part of her that was anything other than staid and respectable. Her skin was pale and smooth and warm like a Café le Blanc special. You could curl up to warmth like that. How long had it been since he had even held hands with anyone other than one of his friends? Three or four years since he and Hifumi had snuck off during breaks in her tournaments? To make out, sure, but sometimes just to take a walk. Something private, just for the two of them?

To remember that he had someone.

"Thank you," she whispered. She inhaled and Akira could almost see her withdrawing into herself. She pulled her hand back and sat perfectly still. The brilliant attorney with heart and nerves of steel. "But Mr. Sato needs someone who can prove that there are supernatural forces at work. That's where you come in."

"Prove it?" His eyes widened. "How can I prove it? I mean, I could tell the court everything I told you and the others would back me, but it would probably get me sent to a mental asylum. And Mr. Sato would still be facing the noose."

"Yes. They would see what they want to see unless confronted with irrefutable evidence." Her voice was crisp, but she scowled as she turned to another page. The ink had begun to fade. These reports were dated from five years ago. "During the incident, I looked for anything comparable to what I saw around me. I thought I was looking at some strange new mental disorder, but my search wasn't for nothing. There were those odd murders in Inaba. And before that, the so-called 'Apathy Syndrome' in Port Island. And, incidentally, there were a cluster of teenagers associated with these incidents."

"Just like the Phantom Thieves." A remarkable guest, the real Igor had called him. Which implied that maybe there had been others. Someone else knew what he was going through, that feeling of "what now?"

"Precisely. And I'm hopeful that we can find something at one of these places that I can bring before the judges." She looked at him, and there was a hint of the old bitterness in her voice. "Palace or no Palace, that was never my world. Even if you can't go into Mementos, they might respect you as a Persona-user. And if we do find anything strange, you would be better at corroborating it."

"I'll do it." The words tumbled out of him, but what else could he say? It was a long shot, but a man would hang if he said no. And...and Sae needed him. "When do we leave?"

"The day after tomorrow. Give me your email and I'll send over the travel information." She leaned in and Akira smelled the scent of jasmine. "Thank you."

He made it all the way to the sidewalk before his knees gave way and he leaned against the wall. What had just happened in there? Well, aside from agreeing to crisscross Japan, which would probably be fun and fodder for a short story or three once he got the book done. He was going to be bringing the existence of Shadows and Personas and gods and demons into the light. Was that even possible? Wouldn't some tabloid journalist have done it by now if it were that easy?

 _And when has Joker ever cared about what is easy?_ This voice sounded like Arséne _. You will do it because it's right and because she asked you._

And perhaps it was that simple. He buried his face in his hands. The scent of jasmine and the warmth of Sae's hand still lingered in the air. Beautiful. The word thrummed through his head like a metronome. Sae Niijima was beautiful. He wanted to take her hand again, to push the errant strands from her hair. No, he wanted to pull clips from her hair and shake it loose as he kissed her slowly. His skin turned feverish. He wanted her. And he had no idea what to do about that. It was one thing to joke with Ryuuji about their teacher, but pursuing someone for real was different. And she was severe, harsh, even after Leviathan's defeat. Surely, there was someone else in the wide world that could make him feel the way he had in that office.

But again, when had he cared about what was easy? Severity wasn't cruelty. She had worked hard to get where she was; he had respected that even as a teenager. She was smart and as fiercely devoted to justice as he was. If… if he didn't have a criminal record and she wasn't a criminal attorney who had one strike against her because she was a girl, he would've been racing to Café Le Blanc right now to ask Sojiro for advice and to book the whole café so they could have some privacy.

Morgana hopped down from the sofa as soon as he opened the door. "What's wrong with you?" He cocked his head to one side and licked his lips. "You look like that time Ann cooked and you were trying not to be sick."

"Nothing's wrong." He hung up his coat and dodged a concerned cat who was trying to wrap his legs around him. "Stood up to a guy who didn't know how to keep his hands to himself. I am hearing a weird voice in my head. I met with Sae. She thinks Shadows might be going berserk again. I'm supposed to help her prove that there are such a thing as Shadows. We're leaving the day after tomorrow."

"That's not nothing." Morgana listened as Akira recounted the events of the day. His tail swished back-and-forth. "If there's someone out there with power to berserk Shadows, that's seriously bad news. 'Hope you see the Velvet Room door again' level of bad news. Because it means there are more dark things out there than Yaldabaoth."

"I think there are. Sae already thinks there were others before me, so I'm probably not the last." It scared him—of course it scared him, only a fool wouldn't be scared of cosmic monsters—but he wasn't as afraid as he should have been. Because if there were still cosmic monsters, there was still something he could fight against. Some hope that this wasn't the best things would ever be. And then maybe you could silence the voice in his head. "You'll come, won't you? I need all the help with this stuff that I can get."

"Of course I'll come. Things have been boring lately. Maybe I can finally make some progress on becoming human." Another pitiful meow. "It'll be good for you to get out. You weren't meant for a place like this."

Akira glanced around his sardine can of an apartment and found it hard to disagree. "I'm going to get some work done."

He sat down at his desk and turned on the laptop. He'd turned to creative writing during his time in juvenile hall in an effort to make sense of the world, and no one was more surprised than him that he had turned out to be good at it. There was power in the creative act, creating a just world where everyone got what they deserved and courage and honor were celebrated. But right now, he needed a love interest for the Phantom. Someone who could be a foil but also a partner, who would challenge him when he needed to be challenged but who was devoted to the side of good.

And then it came to him.

 _The empress loomed over him. There were those that whispered that she was a faerie and with her silver hair that seem to have been woven from moonlight he could almost believe it. Her gown was black and the deep violet reserved for nobility. "We believe in the law, but more than that, we believe in justice. You have one chance to make this right." She seized the Phantom by his hands, her grip like hot iron and raised him to his feet. "Let us see what you do with the remains of your life."_

He reread the paragraph. Not completely horrible. The empress…the empress could work. Akira smiled sadly. Even now, it seemed that his alter ego would have to say and do what he could not. It was going to be a long couple of weeks.

* * *

Sae waited until dinner was almost over until she asked Makoto the question that had been gnawing at her all day. "Do you trust Akira?"

Makoto froze with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "What?"

"I know he's good and honorable when it comes to the fate of the world, but do you trust him for the day-to-day? We're going to be traveling together for the next few weeks, and I want to know right now if he's the kind to skip out on paying for the hotel or pick up…inappropriate company." And if he were lazy or a lech, it would be so much easier to suppress the thought she was having.

But Makoto put down her chopsticks and stared at her. "You're going on vacation? You're going on vacation." She grinned, and Sae had the uneasy feeling that if her sister had been a different sort of woman, she might have squealed. "I am so proud of you."

"It's not a vacation. I'm doing legwork for the Sato case."

Makoto didn't seem to hear her. "Oh, we have got to pull out all the stops on this! Where are you going?"

"Inaba and Port Island, mostly. Anywhere there's been possible Shadow activity."

"Oh it actually is for work. I had hoped—never mind." Her face crumpled and all Sae could see was the teenager who had faced down a crime lord because of her cruelty.

"Hachiro Sato's life is at stake. There's work to be done. I'll take time off. We'll go shopping, just the two of us." She tried to make her voice gentle, even if the tone still felt false to her ears. She could be more than that being inside her. She would be more. "And you never answered my question about Akira."

"Subject changed, I get it. Akira..." She thought. "Ryuji told me about this one time they called a maid service. You know, the kind that give 'massages' in addition to housework. Well, whatever happened there, it was the only time I've ever seen Akira honestly pissed at Ryuji. Screaming about how those kinds of things should be against the law and dragging us all into Mementos to hunt down some blackmailer. I don't think you have to worry about getting your name in the paper. And he always paid his share of the meal. So yeah, I trust him."

"I see." A gentleman thief after all. "I should make those travel arrangements."

"Can I ask you something?" She wore the soft, nervous expression that always brought a lump to Sae's throat. "Why didn't you ask me? I have a Persona too."

"I thought maybe our subjects would respond better to the actual leader." Sae shook her head. Her sister deserved the real reason. "You're doing so much good as Takagi's secretary. I'd hate to take you away from that." Brilliant, hard-working, and with a burning desire to make the world a better place; politics had been Makoto's natural calling. "And I worry a long absence so soon would hurt you."

Makoto flinched. "I thought you learned there are more important things than work," she whispered, almost too quietly for Sae to hear. Then, more loudly. "We are going shopping the minute you get back. And you are going to make this as much of a real vacation as you possibly can. Promise me."

Sae reached toward Makoto, helpless. She had tried to let go of her bitterness and had left the prosecutor's office so she could fight for justice, but the world was still what it was. A woman who didn't want to be a submissive, docile babymaking machine had to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously. There could be no divided loyalties. She had chosen the law. "I'll try," she said, because it was all she could say.

It seemed to satisfy Makoto. "Inaba and Port Island, you said? The Seiya Express runs through there." Her eyes glittered dangerously. "I should book you a couple of seats. I bet Akira would love it. He loves those mystery novels, the one with the French detective."

"That's not really necessary." The sleeper trains had been driven to the point of extinction, but a billionaire with more nostalgia then sense seemed determined to bring them back. The Seiya Express crisscrossed Japan and promised luxury as well as speed. Bedroom suites, dining car with uniformed waiters, decent legroom, everything that the normal trains weren't. Tourists supposedly loved them, and so did people on their honeymoons. Sae flushed. That was not a direction she wanted her mind to be wandering. "Really."

"It'll be fun."

Her little sister was going to be very formidable when she made it to the Diet herself. "Fine. But you have to promise that you'll make the most of your opportunities."

Later, she stood in the empty apartment listening to the silence stretch before her and cursing herself. She was going insane. That was the only possible explanation for her current behavior. It was one thing to take on impossible cases in hopes of seeing justice done. Her…her father would have been proud of that. It was another to let herself be talked into acting like a tourist. It was another thing to look at Akira Kurusu the way she had.

He had grown taller and broader in the last five years. Lean muscle obvious beneath his shirt, but with the same messy hair. It had made him look disreputable as a teenager, but it suited him now: the charming, handsome, slightly roguish author. Who had still taken her hand and told her she was a good person. His grip had been strong and hard. She had wanted to seize his hand and run her fingers over every line and callus. She had wanted him to run those strong fingers through her hair. She had wanted him.

She growled. There, she had admitted it. She was attracted to a man younger than Makoto. A good man, a man who respected women and who wanted to do good so badly that he had let himself go to prison. If there was anyone who could awaken the things she had been forced to bury to succeed as an attorney, it should be a man like him. Except that he was not only younger than her, but the leader of the notorious Phantom Thieves. At best, she would be a joke in a profession where a woman had to be perfect. At worst, she would be considered suspect as whispers that she was corrupt and unfit to practice law swirled around her. And perhaps if there were only a matter of making money, she might have endured it, but Sae held her clients' lives in her hands. They needed someone with a spotless reputation and credibility if they were going to survive a system already predisposed to convict them.

Acid coursed through her. The world was as it ever was: brutally unfair.

 _Doesn't it just make your blood boil?_ The voice inside her head was her own, but harder and more spiteful. She caught her reflection in a hallway mirror. Her eyes flashed gold. _Did you imagine I would go away so easily? That a little lightning and guilt-tripping would turn us into a good girl?_ The Leviathan bared its teeth in the mirror.

"Be quiet." She didn't like to think of the Palace. She had come so close to becoming like the indifferent, corrupt colleagues she had hated just to get a promotion. She had come close to killing Makoto.

 _Oh please, it's not like the Phantom Thieves are still running around. And you said it yourself: the world is just as unfair to women like you as it always has been. I saw the way the boy looked that you. He would have ripped your clothes off and had you right there on the desk if you'd let him. Nothing wrong with that. He's a grown man. But the world won't let you have him._

"It doesn't matter. There's work to be done. The only thing that matters is that Hachiro Sato will die unless I prove that things like you exist."

 _That must rankle, too._ _Knowing that demons and gods and whatever else exist but not having the power to stop it. Having to depend on someone else to verify all your information. To always know that he has been chosen and that you are weak._

"Shut up!" She was not weak. She had been strong enough to change on her own. She had deduced that Shido had been a criminal mastermind. She had saved Akira's life.

 _Yes, you did. And your only reward is this emptiness._ Her reflection smirked. _I'll go for now, but there will come a day when you will beg to be an up-and-coming lawyer with the world at her feet. It's all someone like you can hope for._


	2. Chapter 2

Sae didn't sleep well that night or the next, but her father had taught her to face her fears and commit to a course of action, so she dragged herself to Tokyo Station at dawn along with one suitcase. Even at this hour the station was alive with the noise of trains coming in and people stampeding to and from platforms, restaurants, and vending machine. And in the middle of that crowd was Akira, one hand resting loosely on a half-full luggage cart. His shirt was unbuttoned at the collar. Really, was there some "I shall look vaguely roguish and unconcerned with the world" clause in his book contract?

Then he turned and _unconcerned_ was the last word she would have used it to describe him. His eyes lit up and a grin spread across his face. "Sae!" He rolled the cart toward her, almost-but-not-quite running. "I—good morning. I mean, I'm glad you're here. I thought you might have second thoughts. About the train. I figured Makoto twisted your arm."

She raised her eyebrows. "I guess it's obvious that I'm not the luxury vacation type. She thinks I should get out more. And she seemed to think you would like it."

"I think I would. I've been reading a lot of European genre fiction since, well, you know, and they sure did love their luxury trains. I wonder if I can get some pieces out of this." He flushed. "I'm starting to sound like Yusuke, aren't I?"

Her lips twitched. Cool and aloof artist he wasn't. Just like he wasn't the dangerous delinquent she had been terrified would corrupt Makoto. It bothered her, she realized. Her job was taking the measure of people so she knew how to persuade them in the best interest of her clients. And yet, she kept getting Akira wrong. "You sound like yourself. And I'd like to get to know you, not the boy with glasses he doesn't need trying to keep his head down."

He tilted his head to one side. His tongue darted out to lick his lips. He leaned forward slightly. "Is that so?"

Her mouth felt dry as a shudder coursed through her. _He would have ripped your clothes off and had you right there on the desk if you'd let him._ She hadn't been imagining it at the office. He was attracted to her. She was why he was talking too fast and fidgeting. How long had it been since she had made anyone blush? How long since someone had looked at her like he was looking now? How long since she had wanted them to? High school? University?

The brought her back to reality. She stepped back and crossed her arms. "More luggage than I was expecting." She peered at a small white box on top. "Is that a carrying case? You brought Morgana?"

Akira snapped back to attention and laid a hand on the carrying case. "He wanted to come. I think he's as excited about us going on vacation as Makoto." A small smile of his own. "Of course, that was before I told him he would have to stay in the crate." His voice dropped to a whisper and Sae had to strain to hear him over the din. "I'm going to sneak him out later."

"You most certainly are not!" she rasped. "I am not getting stranded in the middle of nowhere because some cranky old man saw Morgana running around the dining car."

Morgana hissed, and Sae froze. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the cat wasn't just a cat. "My apologies."

More meowing. "He says, 'I will not run around the dining car and a few other things I won't repeat. He picked up some colorful vocabulary from Ryuji."

"I..." What could she say to this animal that spoke like a teenager? She swallowed. He was another reminder that she was entering a world she didn't belong. He spoke but she would never understand him because she didn't wield the power of a Persona.

 _Because you're not one of the chosen ones, you mean?_

No, she would not let that thing gain purchase in her heart again. "Just be discreet. Shall we go?"

"Excuse me," said a young, female voice. "Are you the Phantom?"

Sae turned. Behind her was a girl of no more than seventeen still in her school uniform and accompanied by a glowering woman who appeared to be her mother.

"Yumi, we have a train to catch and so do these people."

Yumi didn't seem to hear her. "You are! You look just like the scrapbook photos! I've got a whole collection! So cool what you did, taking on all those corrupt adults."

Akira shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the ground; he couldn't have been less cool if he'd tried. "Um, thank you. Just trying to help people who couldn't help themselves."

"You are a hooligan, that's what you are," said Yumi's mother. "Corrupting the morals of impressionable youth. If it were up to me, you'd still be in prison. I don't know what the public prosecutor was thinking. Probably seduced by that pretty face."

Something cold and hard washed over Sae. How many times was someone going to question her judgment and blame it on hormones? "I was thinking that Masayoshi Shido was the greatest threat to democracy Japan has ever seen and that a teenage delinquent, no matter how spectacular his crimes, was a much smaller threat. I was thinking that he served his time in juvenile hall, as determined by the courts. And today I am thinking that you shouldn't speak of things you know nothing about. Does that satisfy or is there something else you want to know?"

The woman gaped like a beached fish and Akira was staring at her. Sae willed herself not to flinch. It was the woman who spoke first. "Well, I never! Come along, Yumi!"

"If that's what you say for me," Akira said when they had gone, "I really hope I get a chance to watch you work in the courtroom."

"I'd think you had had enough courtrooms for a lifetime." Deep breath. In and out. "Does this kind of thing happen often?"

"Starstruck teenagers and their horrified mothers? More often than you'd think." His voice was tight and strained. "They don't usually bring you into it, though."

"I doubt I'm the first prosecutor to be accused of letting her libido do the talking." As if she needed more reminders of why this infatuation was a bad idea. It hardly mattered that there was no proof; any suggestion that she had ever been corrupt—and infatuated with a minor she had had in her power—impacted her effectiveness for those who needed her most. There were those who were brilliant enough to get away with those sorts of rumors, but Sae wasn't one of them. She cast about for any other subject to talk about. "Dashing phantom thief and author. Keep that up and you'll be invited to all the parties."

His features smoothed. "Can I get that on record? My mother nearly had an aneurysm when she found out that I didn't have a 'real' job lined up before graduation. So let's hope this book works out."

"Still need to take the big risk every now and again?"

"It depends on the stakes." Akira look at her with an unreadable expression. "Not when good people might lose." He straightened. "We're going to miss our train."

So together they headed toward Platform 21 where Sae got her confirmation that the owner of Seiya Express Railways, LLP. was perhaps insane.

It was a steam train. Or at least it looked like a steam train—surely it ran on electricity like everything else. A shiny black engine complete with locomotive stack and shiny red cars trailing behind with gold edging around the windows. Porters in red, black, and gold uniforms helped people with their luggage. She rested a hand on her forehead. Why had she let Makoto talk her into this?

But Akira's eyes were wide beside her. "Wow. This is, wow."

A porter approached them and bowed. "Allow me to assist you, sir, madame."

When he had boarded the train, Akira turned around and stuck out a hand. "Allow me to assist you, madame." Ah, there was the infamous Joker, roguish charm and devil may care. Really, he had to stop laying it on quite so thick. But she took his lithe, callused hand all the same and stepped into the car.

Inside was more luxury from a bygone age. Plush brown carpets and overstuffed red seats that were a deep crimson. Lights hung from the ceiling, a perfect mockup of what would have been used a century ago and every last inch of it speaking to money and power. Akira couldn't stop staring and Sae couldn't help herself. She took his arm and bent to whisper in his ear. "No heists."

He blushed again. "I would never—oh, you were joking."

"I do that sometimes, yes."

It took him a moment to answer. "I used to," he whispered.

Sae had no idea what to say to that, so they trooped silently into the sleeping car. The Seiya Express had spared no expense here either; her bed was narrow but the sheets were linen with a comforter that was as crimson as everything else she had seen. The bathroom was little more than a shower and toilet, but there was a small "parlor:" a desk, pull-out sofa and chair curtained off between the two bedrooms. Akira seemed fascinated by the sofa. "They have those on the night trains too, you know," she said.

"Not this nice," he said and at least he didn't have that faraway look on his face. "I do not want to see your expense account and this is over."

"Oh no, I paid for this personally. I couldn't justify this extravagance just for business. And since I'm about to become either the most famous defense attorney Japan has ever seen or one who will be laughed out of the bar, I might as well."

He crossed the distance between them and put a hand on her shoulder. Still warm. Was it some natural gift that he found it so easy to touch people? "That woman at the station… she... you're the best lawyer I've ever seen. I'm betting on famous."

His hand ghosted up her neck. Slowly, oh so slowly. Some distant, rational part of her mind was aware that she could back away, but she stood rooted to the spot. Blood thrummed as he brushed against her pulse point with his thumb until he was cupping her cheek. "Flatterer," she managed.

"Just the truth," he said, and Sae noticed with grim pleasure that his voice was as ragged as hers. One step to pull back. One step to lean in.

It was his turn to blink. "Sorry," he muttered. He dropped his hand and collapsed on the sofa. "Why don't you tell me about where we're going?"

Ah, yes work. The capital case that was the reason for this trip in the first place. "Our first stop is Port Island. More or less run by the Kirijo Group. Apparently there was some kind of experiment there years ago and then a mysterious illness swept through the school in 2009. Apparently all dealing with Shadows. Rumor has it that teenagers masquerading as a school club were deeply involved. One of the students died at the end of the school year. Most of the group has scattered to the winds, but the two leaders are still there. Including the head of the Kirijo Group herself."

"So, I've got to convince the head of a powerful and secretive corporation to tell me what she knows about something that shouldn't exist. Sounds like fun." He laughed softly. "Look, I made a joke after all. Nice to know the Joker isn't completely dead."

The train sped on through the morning light and they never left the sofa as Sae summarized what she had been able to find out about not only Apathy Syndrome and the rumored Dark Hour, but also the small town of Inaba and the strange murders that had seized it almost ten years ago: the first and genuine Detective Prince (both of them had flinched when she'd said that) and the young detective who had been murdering people under everyone's nose and would probably have stayed undetected if not for another group of students.

"That would be three groups of teenagers saving the world in a row," Akira said. "I wonder why it's always teenagers." He leaned back. "I mean, back then I thought it was because all the adults were corrupt or stupid. But now, well, I _am_ an adult." He closed his eyes. "I hope that wasn't as good as it gets."

There it was again, that terrible pained vulnerability. Sae joined him on the sofa, their knees almost but not quite touching. "It's not. I was a miserable teenager. First in every class and student council president, but that doesn't always make you the most popular girl in school. You may have noticed that I can be a little abrasive."

"No comment. Part of your charm. So when was the best time?"

"After, well, after the Thieves." Fighting for what was right, away from the corruption of the prosecutor's office. Letting go of the bitterness and finally being able to love Makoto openly and unreservedly.

 _And yet, still weak._

"So no," she said as much to the Leviathan as to him. "Your life didn't end at seventeen."

"Thank you." He looked out the window as the countryside whizzed by under the light of the midday sun. "Want to check out the dining car? Probably a lot of terribly French and terribly expensive food."

"I'd love some." Anything other than this melancholy.

* * *

It wasn't the best plan he had ever had, in retrospect. It felt like every other passenger on the train had decided to eat lunch at this exact moment, so he and Sae ended up shoved in a table in the back corner. He darted in front of Sae and pulled out her chair. She raised her eyebrows but said nothing.

He was really going to have to stop doing things like that. He had been two seconds away from kissing her in the sleeping car. He'd read all about gallant warriors in school, about Don Diego de la Vega and Robin Hood and D'Artagnan. And, well, if he couldn't stop every groper on the train or every lousy father who abandoned his wife and son and then blamed her during the custody battle, he could be a gentleman. Except this was going beyond being a gentleman. He wanted to be something different to Sae, something she would remember. Or more.

More. Okay, admitting things was a good first step. He was ready to date again. He just had to find a way to do it that wouldn't involve the other girl turning into a joke. He made a mental note to let Morgana out as soon as possible and ask him. At the very least they could commiserate over hopeless crushes.

"Ex-cuse me, waiter-sama?" said the man at the next table. He was American or English, maybe forty or so with messy red hair, horn-rimmed glasses and a tweed jacket—and a dress shirt that was a truly amazing shade of mustard yellow. He balanced a Japanese-English dictionary on the table with a miserable expression on his face. "Let's see, how do you order port wine?"

Never let it be said that his gallantry extended only to women. He breathed an apology to Sae and approached the other man. "Need some help?" he asked in English.

"Oh yes, please!" The man looked like Akira had thrown him a life preserver. "I speak twenty-three languages; unfortunately all of them are dead. My colleagues promised me that most people here spoke English, but I think some of the nuance has been lost."

"No problem. Port wine, you said?" He ordered the wine and the other man looked so grateful that Akira couldn't help but blush.

"I am so sorry about this," the man said. "Normally, I stay in Cambridge and leave the field work to other people, but there were so many extraordinary paranormal incidents in the last few years, that I had to see for myself. This Dark Hour or Midnight Channel alone could be the greatest find in the history of parapsychology since Rhine!"

"Paranormal?" Akira choked out. His mind raced. Somebody else looking into the strange happenings and trying to prove them? It was either a wonderful coincidence or a horrible one. He checked himself. Or not a coincidence at all. Paranoia was an occupational hazard, but it also kept him alive. "And you are?"

"Where are my manners?" The man extended his hand. "Dr. Howard P. King, Department of Classics at Harvard and also proud member of the American Society for Psychical Research. And I get no end of grief from the former for the latter, believe me!"

"Right, the ghost hunter people." He had someone to Google tonight.

"Oh, not just ghosts. Paranormal activity of all kinds. And Japan has seen more than its fair share over the past few years. I was especially taken with the Phantom Thieves of Heart. And if one could ever prove that those confessions were supernatural in nature...but that would be too much to hope for." He leaned across the table. "Though I did hear that the prosecutor in the case had boarded the train. You wouldn't happen to know if it's true, would you? A Ms. Nye-jy-ma?"

"I have no idea." _What would you say if you knew The Phantom Thief himself was sitting right across from you._ "I really should be getting back to my friend."

"Of course, of course. But you know, this concept of persona that I keep running across is quite extraordinary. And the notion of some sort of cosmic battle between good and evil going on for millennia. Always fought with mortal champions. Usually people of no outward import at all. Shame about what happens to most of them, though."

"And what's that?"

"Some of them died, but then, people were always dying violently until quite recently. But the majority who've been touched by this conflict seemed to go mad. Auditory hallucinations—hearing voices. Taunting them with what they should have done."

Akira gripped the edge of the table. Auditory hallucinations exactly like he had. "Even if there were some truth to all this mumbo-jumbo, didn't you call it a cosmic war? Fighting in something like that is bound to mess you up."

"True. And it's not like I can speak to one of these participants. Not that a modern young man like you has any reason to be interested in my work. Although…" He finished out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Akira. _Howard Philips King, Harvard University._ "If you hear anything, please let me know."

Akira did his best to walk normally back to his table. "Sorry about that, but you won't believe what that American is doing here." He recounted their conversation. Sae's face remained impassive, but when he reached the part about hearing voices, her fingers tightened on her wine glass. "He wants an interview with you, by the way."

"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint him. At least his story should be easy to verify. So, each of these battles against cosmic forces are what? Moves in some kind of shoji game?" She wiped her forehead. "Things just keep getting bigger and bigger. I'm starting to miss the days when a coup d'état was all I had to worry about. I don't suppose Igor ever bothered to verify any of this information?"

"We didn't really talk much, and I'm taking anything Yaldabaoth told me with a large grain of salt." He looked down. "You don't think it's true, about the dying and the crazy?"

"I don't think so, no. I don't know who the Wild Cards were, but Yu Narukami, Mitsuru Kirijo, and Akihiko Sanada are all very alive and successful. I understand Yu is married now. He and his wife are spending the summer in Inaba. He's on the interview list." Her voice softened. "How have you been the last few years? You were put through quite the ordeal. Some of that was my fault. Anything other than that general sense that your best years are behind you."

 _I worry that I didn't do enough, and there's a voice in my head telling me just that. Sometimes I want to change every heart in Japan so I can make things the way I want them. You make me feel okay again, but I don't know what to do about that. And any psychiatrist I tell this to will lock me up._ "It's been rough, but I'm surviving. You?"

"It's been rough, but I'm surviving." She looked suddenly tired and far older. It occurred to him that King had said "those touched by the war" and not "Persona user" and that maybe he wasn't the only one at the table who was shellshocked. "We need to do something fun."

"Excuse me?"

"Apparently, I've been spending a lot of time brooding lately. And since this is supposed to be a vacation in addition to saving an innocent man, we should do something to take our minds off things."

"I don't think I'm quite ready to hit the bar yet."

"Me neither. But there's gotta be something we can do…" He'd spent every other day his junior year in the gym working off steam. Good practice for time in the Palace, but it had mostly been a healthy outlet for his desire to punch something. "This thing have punching bags? They have everything else."

Sae looked at him, confused. "No? I think I saw a ping-pong table in the lounge car but..."

"Perfect!" She didn't move. "What? Table tennis is an Olympic sport. Better than nothing."

"You want me to play ping-pong."

 _"Table tennis!"_ He managed as much of Joker's voice as he could and gave her a half-smile. "Unless you're afraid of losing, Ms. Niijima?"

For the briefest of moments, Akira was scared he had gone too far as Sae continued to stare at him. But then she laughed at him. Low and deep. A sound like water on parched ground. "You're going to pay for this. Loser buys dinner when we reach Port Island. And, as you may remember, I hate losing."

She did. He'd never known someone to work up a sweat playing table tennis, but Sae's skin shone bright and her eyes were gleaming and she kept him moving back-and-forth. Twenty minutes later, the score was still tied.

"I know where I got my reflexes, but what's your excuse?" Ball over the net to the far left corner. Sae caught it just in time. Damn, he'd thought he'd had her with that one.

"Took judo classes until work ate up all my free time." She rebounded to him. "More playing, less talking."

The score was 10-10. Both of them were breathing hard, and Akira's arms were sore in a way that shouldn't have been possible for table tennis. Sae's serve. Bounce, heading toward the left corner. He dived—and just missed. The ball bounced on his side of the table. Sae smirked, and Akira tried his hardest to glare at her. "You've got to win by two points. The rules!"

She laughed yet again, and Akira thought he would have happily lost by ten thousand points if only he could hear that sound again and wondered that he had ever thought her cold. When she got her second point a few serves later, he couldn't muster even mock indignation.

Later, they stumbled back to the sleeping car, laughing and faces flushed. He was pleasantly sore, all thoughts of Personas and cosmic evil a distant memory. Sae was still smiling. "Thank you. I haven't played that hard since…well, I don't think I ever have."

"You'll have to tell me what kind of drink you like." Her dark eyes were still glittering, and some of the lines had vanished from her face. _If this were a movie, this would be the part where I kiss her good night._

"I will never say no to sake." She took his hand. "I need to review the file before tomorrow, but thank you." Their fingers twined together, and she squeezed. "For everything. Then and now." And then she was gone.

He slumped down on the edge of the sofa and pulled his laptop from his bag.

 _The Phantom wondered if it might have been kinder to let him die in prison. A good thief had an appreciation for his limits. "Your Highness, no one has ever been able to steal from the Imperial Palace of the Kitai." And many had tried. The Kitai had been enemies of the Koreni for as long as anyone could remember._

 _But the empress' terrible, beautiful expression never wavered. "Then you will be the first. Those documents must be removed if there is to be any hope of peace." Her gaze flickered almost imperceptibly. "If there's to be any hope for our marriage."_

 _The Phantom tried not to flinch himself. Everyone knew that the empress must marry, and that a chance to bring this long war to an end was worth almost any risk. It wasn't as if he had any claim to her. But he hoped the Lord of the Kitai would appreciate that mind that was as sharp and cold as an ice blade. "I was already dead. I can think of worse things to die for than you."_

 _"For all of us."_

 _"No, Your Highness. I'm a thief. Were not very patriotic." He approached and knelt before her. "I'm doing this for you."_

 _Her voice was soft. "Then you must do us—me-the honor of using our given name. I am Katsuki." The most beautiful_ and _skilled of all. Perfection._

* * *

Akira woke to a warm ball of cat on his chest. "Morgana?" he murmured, surprised and sleepy. "What are you doing here?"

"I got tired of waiting for you to break me out." Morgana stretched on his chest and looked around. "This is way nicer than cargo."

"Do you want something? It's"—he looked at the clock—"six in the morning."

"Just the usual. A chin scratch, tuna, to know if my best friend in the whole wide world is still hearing voices."

"You worry too much."

"I'll take that as a yes." Morgana's tail swished. "This is seriously bad news."

"You said that yesterday. And if that American professor is even halfway right, it could be even worse than that." He sat up and told Morgana as much about Professor King as he dared. "But even if he is right, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about it. It's not like Lavenza handed me a parting gift of _How to Manage Your Sanity Now That You Are a Normal Human Being Again_."

"I think you need to follow this investigation. Sae wants to know about past Persona users. You're about to meet some." The cat gave Akira his most threatening glare. "It wouldn't kill you to get out more."

"I think this qualifies as out."

"I mean with your friends. A girlfriend. Did you forget how your Personas got so powerful?" Morgana put a paw on his chest. "Social. Interaction."

"Akira?" Sae's voice came through the door. "Are you up? I was just about to call for breakfast. Do you want anything?"

"Social. Interaction."

 _You would not say that if you knew how I felt about her._ But maybe Morgana had a point. Or maybe it was just selfish. "Some miso soup, thanks. Give me a minute and I'll join you."

He threw on his clothes and walked into the parlor. He had never seen Sae anything less than perfectly made up, but the woman on the sofa was rumpled with errant strands of hair. She'd just gotten out of bed. He tried to shut that line of thought down, but it didn't quite work. Sae in bed. Looking just like that. Maybe he really was going crazy. Then again, finding everything she did attractive sounded a lot better than demons.

Morgana looked between them once, twice. "I don't believe it," he whispered. "You've got a crush on Sae Niijima! Why didn't you tell me? Oh, Ryuji is going to love this."

Akira glared at him. "I can always put you back in that carrying case, you know."

"Do I want to know what he's saying?"

"Not particularly." He picked Morgana up by the scruff of the neck. "One second." Man and cat marched back to the bedroom where Akira deposited him on the floor.

Morgana hissed and swiped at him. "What was that for? Because I said you had a crush on Sae?" His eyes widened. "You do. You've got a serious thing for her. A 'be grouchy with the cat' type thing."

"Which you are not going to ever tease me about ever again."

"You were not this way about Hifumi." His voice was suddenly all sympathy. "She turned you down?"

"There hasn't been anything to turn down." He ran his fingers through his hair. "The answer would be no anyway."

"That does not sound like the cocky, risk-taking Akira I know. I miss devil-may-care Joker."

"He found out he couldn't live his whole life as a thief." It was one thing to risk his own livelihood if being a writer didn't pan out. It was another to tell Sae that she should risk her career when she had finally found a way of doing what she loved. "Joker is career poison. I don't want to hurt her."

"Oh man, you really do have it bad." Morgana rubbed against his legs. "It's not like it's completely hopeless."

"You don't think?"

"I'm still in love with Lady Ann. Now _that's_ hopeless. You just need to find a way for everybody to get what they need. And not go crazy. That would be good too. Now go in there, be a good thief and steal some time with her. And save me some soup."

Akira smiled. Morgana was the most annoying cat in the universe—and the best. "Thanks," he said and scratched Morgana behind the ears. He couldn't live his whole life as a thief, but he could take this much.

The train sped on towards Port Island and whatever hope any of them had for answers.


	3. Chapter 3

There was comfort in the glass and steel of the Kirijo Group offices. This world could be just as deadly as the Palaces, but the wars were fought with words and contracts, and Sae had been fighting with those her whole life. Akira fidgeted beside her. It was strange to see him nervous. He had been defiant even when broken and bleeding in the interrogation room. A swashbuckling figure out of myth, fighting the corrupt society around him even when it was insane to do so. Except he was just a good, tired young man who kept trying to make her smile. She glanced around to make sure they were alone and grabbed his hand. "It'll be all right," she whispered. "Deep breaths."

He took the deep breath as ordered. "Sorry. This really isn't my kind of place." He smiled at her. I'm glad you're here."

They stood like that for a long time. The warmth from his hand soaked through her, soothing the tension in her muscles. She ought to move. They had been dancing right up to the line of permissible intimacy since the day he had walked into her office, but... _I like touching him,_ she realized. _I like having one person who seems to actually like me for myself instead of fitting me in a little box. I like teasing and being teased. I like this._

His eyes were closed. Sae took a moment to study him. The way his hair fell almost but not quite in front of his eyes. The vein just barely visible against the pale skin of his neck. The scar on his temple. He really was indecently good-looking. Her roguish, charming, sad thief. There was something funny about that. To have the same person reawaken both her high-minded desire for justice and base lust. _I want you. I want to put my hand on your cheek right now, watch your eyes blink open, and kiss you. Then take you back to the hotel and not come out until spring._

There was a sharp knock at the door, and Akira's eyes did blink open. He disentangled his hand from hers slowly and gently as a man in a dark suit approached. "Ms. Kirijo will see you now."

There were rumors about the Kirijo group, of course. Whispers around the water cooler even in the days that she had been a prosecutor. They were one step above the yakuza. They _were_ yakuza. Those who displeased them disappeared without a trace. They conducted unfathomable, occult experiments. But it wasn't until Sae beheld Mitsuru Kirijo in the flesh that she considered that every word of those rumors might've been true.

The woman couldn't have been much younger than Sae herself. Her white blouse was exquisitely tailored, every strand of her red hair perfectly in place. So far nothing unexpected. But her posture…the way she held her pen? This was a woman born to the things Sae had scratched and clawed for. Her eyes were cold, if not cruel and seemed to be peeling her back layer by layer. Sae barely resisted the urge to cross her arms in defense.

"So, you are the Phantom," Mitsuru said without preamble. "I heard rumors about what happened in Tokyo. I look forward to hearing how many of them are true."

Sae and Akira looked at each other, and she took a step forward. "That depends on what sort of rumors you've heard," she said. "And what you're willing to tell us."

"You are the attorney? You know about Shadows and you haven't awakened? Strange. But I don't discuss Kirijo Group matters with outsiders."

Of course she didn't. "And are Shadows Kirijo Group matters? You built Gekkoukan High, and I've heard a few rumors of my own. A majority of the Apathy Syndrome cases seemed centered around the school. And something about a place called Tartarus that only appeared during something called the Dark Hour?"

Mitsuru's lips twisted into a half-smile. "Impressive. Let's dispense with the games, shall we? You already know that Personas and Shadows exist." She nodded to Akira. And if the reports I've read _are_ true, you not only have a Persona, you are a Wild Card of considerable power. So, why have you come to me? I can't imagine the Phantom cares much for defending the world."

"I might surprise you. My friend's client has been accused of murder. We think Shadows are what's really responsible, but we need to prove they exist. Anything I tell the judges about what I did will be laughed out of court, but I'm betting you're up to your ears in records." He sounded so terribly warm and sincere. "I know it's a lot to ask, but he doesn't deserve to hang."

Sae had known it wouldn't be as simple as just asking, but she had been hoping for a long period of silence, something to show the chink in Mitsuru's armor, but her reply was as swift as a rapier strike. "You don't know what you're asking. You think knows something about Shadows because you tangled with them once during your little rage against the system? I've been fighting this war since I was a child. And I am telling you that there are things that the public not only shouldn't know, but they don't want to."

"So what? I'm supposed to just let a guy die thinking he's murdered his family?"

"You're supposed to let the authorities handle it."

"With you being the authority?" His eyes were hard.

"One of them. Being a Persona user is a tremendous responsibility. You should know that. I've spent my whole life doing this, knowing that the end of the world was just around the corner. Do you think those at the highest level of government don't know what's going on? You would do nothing but cause a panic."

"Nothing but save a life." Akira's voice was low and calm. "If you know anything about me, Ms. Kirijo, you know that I don't care much for authorities. What's the real problem? Afraid some of your dirty laundry might get aired to the public? I'm pretty good at airing laundry when I need to."

Mitsuru laughed, and Sae's stomach clenched. "How do you think you're going to do that? In this world, you're flesh and blood and our security is very good. If you think you can figure out how to beat a biometric lock, motion sensing technology, and defensive measures that you've never even heard of before your client's case goes to trial, you're welcome to try. "

Cold washed over Sae. Once more, someone was patting her on the head and telling her not to bother. Come to the expected conclusion, let those above her rule as they saw fit, and keep her head down. There was nothing she could do anyway. She stared at the window. Her reflection transformed. The Leviathan stared back at her with its eyeshadow like bruises. _Why are you bothering?_ it asked with a smile. _The game is rigged. The game is always rigged._

She blinked, and the reflection was gone.

"I promise you the Kirijo Group will look into this case and do what we can for Mr. Sato. Good day to you."

Sae let herself be ushered outside. She was aware she got into an elevator and that a button was pressed without quite knowing how she did it. _The game is always rigged._ Try to do good and you clashed with the powers of the world protecting themselves. Who was she to think she could bring this conspiracy to light?

 _Yes, that's right. Give in. I'm the real you after all._

SLAM! The sound of flesh on metal forced Sae back into the real world as Akira slammed his fist into the elevator wall. He spewed a litany of curses she hadn't even been aware he knew. "Who does she think she is?" He heaved. "She's hiding something! If I could just change her—" He looked at Sae, and his eyes focused as if seeing her for the first time. "No, almost crossed that line once. It doesn't matter anyway."

 _Change her heart. He means me._ The image of the yellow-eyed thing in the mirror swam before her. Maybe it would've been kinder for the Phantom Thieves to have changed her heart. To scrape away this envy and helplessness that was always lurking. Being a good person was a choice, someone had said. It was more than that; it was a war fought hour by hour and day by day against temptation and always knowing that there were forces like the Kirijo Group that made your efforts come to nothing. And the shadows would still be there.

Sae took his hand again. His muscles were taut like a bowstring as he thrummed beneath her. "We'll just have to find another way."

"Yeah." He inhaled and leaned against her, warm but hard as steel. "I'll come up with a plan. I always come up with a plan."

The elevator door opened, but the man who entered couldn't have looked less like a Kirijo Group employee if he'd tried. He was about Mitsuru's age with short dark hair and stubble—and a baseball jersey. His eyes widened almost imperceptibly. Oh, that was right. She and Akira were standing closer together than colleagues should. A weight settled over and in her muscles. She was so tired. They would never see this man again. Let him think whatever the hell he wanted.

But he smiled at them and it was a warm, friendly smile. "You're the other Wild Card and the lawyer, right? I'm guessing that the meeting didn't go so well?"

She and Akira looked at each other. "How do you know about that?" Sae asked.

"I know a lot of things I'm not supposed to. Junpei Iori, at your service." He bowed with a flourish that was too extravagant to be entirely polite.

Iori. He had been a name in the file. One of the members of SEES at the time of the Apathy Syndrome. "You wanted another plan," Sae mouthed. Then, to Iori, "No, the meeting didn't go so well."

"Maybe you could help us?" There was no trace of Akira's pain in his voice now. If being a writer didn't pan out, he could always try acting. "My friend here has a client..."

Junpei's eyes widened as Akira told him what had happened. "You don't ask for small favors. I mean, I know what you're going through. Mitsuru's always been somebody who...plays her cards close to her chest. Ask her if the sky is blue, and she'll want a full dossier on you before she'll tell you. Maybe it really would be better to let us handle it. I promise we won't just sit on our tails and do nothing."

"When the Dark Hour happened, would you have left that to somebody else?" Akira asked softly. "Would Minato Arisato have?"

Junpei flinched. "Low blow man, low blow. Look, he's probably eighty percent of the reason Mitsuru's keeping her mouth shut. He was our Wild Card, and it didn't really work out too well for him."

"He died on graduation day. I'm sorry. But it wasn't a heart condition like the medical report said, was it?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I fought the incarnation of the desire for control because he wanted to destroy the world. Try me."

Incarnation of the desire for control? That was new. Of course he and Akechi must've gotten their powers from somewhere, but she had assumed that the conspiracy rose no higher than Shido. Corrupt men she could deal with. They were talking about a god.

 _As if you needed another reminder that you're weak._

"Okay, maybe you would believe me. Our...ultimate enemy if you want to call it that was Nyx. Death. And the same stuff that gave Minato his powers meant he was the only one who could seal it away. And then there was crazy stuff involving a time loop and something worse almost happened and...did I mention that the girl I had a crush on died saving me from a death cult?"

Akira paled. "A cosmic war."

"Yeah, if you want to put it like that." Junpei looked between them. "I'm just saying that you look like you got off pretty easy as far as the aftermath. You and your...friend can go back and try to put your lives in order and be happy." He swallowed, and his voice softened. "Mitsuru and Minato were dating. I don't think she ever got over it. She talks a big game about protecting the world, but I wouldn't wish this life on anyone. I'll see what I can do about your client, but just be careful, okay?"

The elevator deposited them at the ground floor, and they stumbled out. The sunlight seemed unnaturally harsh, bleaching the sidewalks like bones in the desert. A black butterfly darted to and fro. Akira took her arm, but Sae lacked the energy to pull away. Incarnations. Of death or the desire for death, of tyranny and control. Of envy. Things that could never really be beaten because they were branded on the human heart. "That's what you were facing?"

"How I spent my Christmas Eve." He was once more the pained, wounded thief. "Yaldabaoth nearly wiped us from existence. You can thank Yuki for us still being here."

"Christmas Eve?" Memories flashed before her mind. He had seemed exhausted that night when she had come to Café Le Blanc to tell him that he would have to turn himself in. She'd put it down to the stress of the last few months but he'd been through hell. Maybe literally "I'm sorry."

"You couldn't have known, and it wouldn't have made a difference if you had. Maybe that's the real thing that sets Wild Cards apart: we do what has to be done. I just wish I had been stronger. I could have made a real difference."

Oh. Sae wished suddenly, desperately that she was something other than what she was. Her mind was all sharp edges of argument with little room for tenderness. She ought to take him into her arms and stroke his hair and whisper soothing words. Instead, she put two fingers under his chin and turned his face to look them in the eye. "You saved me. That's not nothing."

"I was merely the facilitator." He gritted his teeth in a mockery of a smile. "But what if I told you I could have done more? That I could have burned away all this corruption. No more secretive corporations, no more police beating up a teenage kid. No more having to turn down what you really want because the rest of the world sees you as just a child or just a girl. What if I told you I could have made the world perfect, but I didn't?"

She swallowed. A perfect world. Once she would have laughed at the notion. Even those charged to seek justice were corrupt and good cops died in the line of duty. That was before Akira told her everything he had done and she had seen Shido confess to his crimes on live television. Now perfection was a glittering jewel that was forever visible and always just out of reach. "I would ask you what you would have had to do."

"Something I thought was horrible."

"Then I'm glad you didn't," she whispered. "You're a good man."

"I wish I believed you." He sighed. "Up for another distraction? I still owe you that drink."

It took them two tries to find a bar that served actual alcohol (something about a drunk-driving case and a power outage that sounded suspiciously like more Shadows), but eventually they ended up in an upscale pub not far from the local shrine. A few of the patrons glanced at them as they entered but quickly went back to their drinks. Sae couldn't remember the last time she had been out drinking with someone, but the warmth of the alcohol settled over her, loosening her muscles and filling her brain with a pleasant fuzziness. Sip by sip, Akira regained his color and his face softened. When she asked him about his book, his whole face lit up and they were off to the races as she learned more about constructing a fantasy culture than she thought she ever wanted to know.

"Of course, the commoners usually marry wherever they like, but the nobles, now that's a different story! All money and alliances. Which causes no end of trouble for our hero, naturally, being in love with the empress and all."

"Naturally."

"Forbidden love, this can never be, etc. etc." He gestured expansively, the wave of his hands seeming to take in every tragic love in the history of myth or melodrama. "Don't tell anybody, but I still haven't figured out how I'm going to get them their happy ending."

Something wild and irreverent welled up within her. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it was some mischievous spirit bent on causing chaos. Maybe she was just tired. "Why doesn't the empress just make him whatever you call a _mistress_ when it's a man. I mean, every king, emperor and their dog was sleeping around."

His eyes bulged as he choked down his drink. "Because I'm writing for impressionable teenagers," he squeaked. "Who are you and what have you done with Sae Niijima?"

She chuckled. "I am a lawyer. I specialize in finding solutions within the limits of the rules. Of course, if your hero isn't worth it…"

"Of course, he's worth it. He's the hero! Dashing, roguish thief on the outside, noble hero on the inside. Humble background, falsely accused."

 _Sounds like someone's projecting a little_ , she thought with a smile. "But why him and why her? Why out of all the millions upon millions of people it could be for either one of them, is this worth risking a kingdom for?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Because…because they're comfortable around each other. He doesn't mind that she has all this power and actually wants to help her instead of treating her like a spoiled dog, and he can be a little broken around her."

They looked at each other. Sae swallowed as the air grew thick and warm around them. Comfortable. That was what she wanted. Yes, he was attractive and sad and all those other things that were sending her hormones into open revolt. But sitting like this, laughing? How long has that been either? No, she didn't just want to keep him in a hotel until spring. She wanted moments like that morning on the train, simply having breakfast. Talking about his writing or her cases or whatever else and knowing that he cared.

 _So now you want a love affair?_ She could almost see the Leviathan's sneer. _Can you imagine the gossip columns? "Attorney sleeping with sister's high school classmate." There are already too many 'll be lucky to get traffic cases. All for an infatuation that will fizzle out in a few weeks. Of course if you want to drive yourself insane beating your hand against the glass, I can't stop you._

"I thought I told you to shut up," she whispered.

"Sae, you okay?"

No, she wasn't. She was going to go mad with this voice in her head. Or worse, she was going to become what she was before. She didn't have the energy to keep fighting. "I—"

"Talking about your book, are you?" came the loud, slightly slurred voice of Professor King as he approached them. "You know, the lady does have a point. People with power really can do whatever they want as long as they have enough of it. It's not really my field, but take Catherine of Russia. Has her husband murdered, makes one of her lovers king of Poland, and is remembered as one of the greatest rulers of any country in a time when she was expected to do little more than pop out children."

"Right, the one with the horse."

"That is historical fantasy." He put what was probably supposed to be a friendly hand on Akira's shoulder. "What I'm saying is that the truly influential can do as they please. Give your hero enough power to crush whatever stands in his way."

"Power?"Akira's voice was strangled. "Where would he get that kind of power?"

"I'm sure an enterprising author like you can come up with something. I've certainly ran across a few in my research for that project I told you about." He cleared his throat. "'The hearts of man hold power greater than any spell.' That was inscribed on a memorial stone in ancient Sumeria."

Akira had said that he could have made the world perfect if only he had done something horrible. A bargain of some kind? Myths were chock full of deals with devils and evil spirits. And if these embodiments of the collective unconscious weren't gods, they were close enough that it didn't make a difference. "I think I've had enough. And I don't know about you, but I promised Makoto that I would get her a souvenir."

Akira blinked. "Right. I'll see you back on the train, Professor. Good luck with your research." He put a wad of bills down on the table and took Sae by the arm, leaving a red-faced and blinking Professor King behind.

"I need to be somewhere quiet," he said when they were outside.

Quiet sounded lovely. "Lead on." And by unspoken, mutual agreement they walked toward the shrine. There was no one else here at this hour, but the grounds looked well-maintained. Their only other company was a blue butterfly that hopped from one blade of grass to the next. Sae had considered herself a ruthlessly practical and materialistic person before the Phantom Thieves incident, only offering prayers at the shrine when her mother twisted her arm or Makoto begged her, but there was an aura of peace here that even she could feel. The whispers of Leviathan stilled and silent.

Akira plopped down on a bench. "He's right you know, about the power. I could have done so much more."

"You said you would have had to do something horrible. Some kind of deal?"

He nodded. "Yaldabaoth. He offered to let me keep my access to the collective unconscious if I would just leave him and his power alone. Considering he wanted to enslave humanity…the whole point of being a Phantom Thief was to be a freedom fighter. I was afraid of what I would become. But now I wonder…if I saved the world, why is it so broken?"

A different, better person would have had some comforting words for him. Sae had none. "I don't know. Maybe it's just unfair by nature." She took a step closer to him. "But anyone having that power for too long scares me. That's how it always started in the prosecutor's office: the power went to our heads. And you're too good to become a monster like I almost was."

He looked up at her, miserable. "You say that, but lately I've been wondering. I keep hearing this voice in my head, taunting me with everything I could have done. All the creeps I could have stopped, all the wrongs I could have righted. Telling me that I could force Mitsuru to do whatever I wanted. So I'm afraid I'm not the noble savior you think I am. Maybe I never was."

"Voice?" The ground shifted beneath her. He was hearing voices. Akira, the only person in the world besides Makoto she trusted to explain and guide her through this strange world was hearing voices. "You too?" she whispered.

His eyes widened and he hauled himself to his feet. "Too? Sae? What happened in the bar? I heard you tell someone to shut up and it didn't sound like you were talking to me."

Sae closed her eyes. He would think her insane or weak or depraved, that she was maddened by too much work. Maybe when he saw what kind of mess she really was, it would be for the best. "The Leviathan. In the mirror sometimes, sometimes just a voice. Telling me that I'm weak, I have no business running around chasing after the supernatural, life is unfair, etc. All perfectly true."

"I'd agree about the unfair part." He took his hands in hers. "But I will never think that you are weak or that you don't belong here."

"You're biased." She exhaled sharply. There was a time when she was very young that she had dreamed of something—someone—like him: a handsome young man who seemed to think she was amazing despite her abrasiveness and love for her career. What she had found was day after day of snide comments or worse. "Why couldn't you have come sooner? No, I mean why couldn't I be younger—no I mean why can't I—"

"Sae?" He disentangled one hand to brush his fingers across the line of her cheek. They were trembling. She shivered. Why couldn't she have this?

Because the world was unfair as Leviathan so helpfully reminded her. Tormenting her with what she couldn't have. And if she gave into the cynicism? Well, she still wouldn't have him. The game was rigged. The only way to win was to—

—was to cheat back. Just like a Phantom Thief. She shivered again, the edges of an idea forming. Not the idea of a good girl, but they had been tottering toward the line for ages. She was a lawyer; she found loopholes. "Akira," she asked. "Do you want to kiss me?" She was vaguely, distantly impressed that she got through that without stuttering.

Akira wasn't so lucky. His face turned red. "What? I—er, _what?"_

"I want you to. I've wanted you to since that day you walked into my office. I've tried to ignore it, but the voice keeps taunting me, telling me that I can't have you, that everyone and everything I care about would mock me or worse. But everyone isn't here. And I don't have the energy to fight anymore."

It had to be the least romantic proposition in the history of the world.

His other hand dropped away, and Sae knew that she had said the wrong thing. She had finally managed to repulse him. He had remembered that she was all sharp edges and no romance and it would be so much easier to find someone else. Or maybe she had misread him from the beginning, hormones and loneliness creating a fantasy world where someone like him could care for someone like her. Her face burned and her eyes stung. She took a step back. Better to leave now and salvage some dignity.

"Stay," he breathed, and she stopped.

He didn't kiss at all like Sae imagined he would. Gently, so gently she could barely feel it, he brushed his lips against hers. They were cool and dry and slightly chapped. Real. One hand tangled in her hair while the other came around her waist. He was still shaking. Fear? Of hurting her? It seemed silly. She wanted this. Something just for her, even if she couldn't keep it. She tilted her head to one side and parted her lips, trying to draw him in. She heard a little gasp, and then he was kissing her back, really kissing her. One hand roamed her back, tracing little patterns that stirred up something wild in her. She matched his movements as much her addled brain and half out of control body let her. Learning the shape of his muscles through his shirt.

They kissed again and again. Cheeks, jaws, eyelids: nothing seemed off-limits. He found a sensitive spot below her right ear that made her gasp and swear when he nibbled it. She paid him back by biting at the side of his neck. And…it felt good. Not just lust or relief or whatever else she had told herself she would feel. It felt good to do something he liked and know that he was trying just as hard to do the same for her. No dominance games, nothing exploitive. Partners.

But even that couldn't last forever. Sae pulled back. Both of them were breathing hard. His skin was flushed, his hair was a mess and—were those marks? She touched a blossom of reddened skin on his neck. She really ought to be embarrassed at her loss of control. She couldn't quite manage it. He guided her head to the crook of his neck; she had to hunch a little to fit. His hand was back in her hair, stroking and guiding errant strands into place. "Yes," he said at last, "I want to kiss you."

Sae laughed.

"Does it help, with Leviathan? It's a little quieter for me now."

She stilled. Her body felt heavy and warm, and pleasure fizzled over her. The Leviathan was silent for now. How much was endorphins and how much was giving in and how much was him was impossible to know, but for the first time since this began, she felt at peace. "It helps."

"Good." He wrapped a strand of hair around his fingers. "So what happens now?"

The question shocked her from her stupor. She shifted to look up at him; he was serious and worried with a little furrow between his brows. What happened now? She had only thought as far ahead as stealing one kiss. It wasn't as if they could go back to Tokyo and watch firework displays or whatever passed for a romantic evening these days.

But they weren't going to Tokyo. They were in Port Island. After that, they would go to Inaba. Two places where no one knew either of them and where they would likely never return. What did she care what perfect strangers thought of her when they had no power to hurt her? It looked like she would be able to cheat a little longer.

If that was what he wanted. "I'd like for this to continue." She tried to be matter-of-fact, but her voice sounded very small and very nervous. "I don't know what I can give you or for how long. Maybe this is just hormones. But for as long as we're here, I'd like to try. If that's all right."

"A fling, hm? I've never had one of those before." He laughed and it was genuine and how was she ever going to get anything done when everything he did made her feel giddy? "Stolen time?"

"Stolen time."

"Lucky for you then, Ms. Niijima. I'm still the best thief in the business."


	4. Chapter 4

Sae swiped the keycard and they entered the suite. Akira drunk in the large windows with the view of the placid sea below them, the leather chairs and mahogany breakfast table. It wasn't quite as romantic or ridiculous as the train, but she still seemed to be doing a good job impressing her boyfriend. Sae suppressed a laugh. Boyfriend. She had a boyfriend.

She stepped behind him and wrapped her arms around him. Port Island wasn't the middle of nowhere, but it wasn't Tokyo either. A handful of stars were out, softening silvering the water below. Akira leaned back and sighed. Sae could still feel the muscle beneath his shirt, but he was loose, relaxed, like a lion resting in the grass instead of about to pounce. "You have a thing for amazing views, don't you?"

"If you're going to work fifteen-hour days, you might as well look at something nice." It was the only kind of beauty she had allowed herself. She had had no time for museums or concerts except for what she had to do to play the game at the office. And even working on her own, there had always been more briefs that needed to be filed, more depositions to take, more families to console. Maybe the whispers were about more than Akira or the shadowy gods. Maybe she had needed this vacation more than she realized.

"Well, you've got time for more than staring out windows now." He glanced at the closed door of one bedroom. "Morgana must've fallen asleep waiting for us. Probably swipe my face when I wake him up. He hates that."

Sae swallowed. Morgana. "He'll want to know where you were. What are you going to tell him?"

He shrugged. "The truth? Not looking forward to the teasing there. He's been wanting me to ask you out since this trip started."

Heat spread across her cheeks. The cat already knew? "Were we that obvious?" Holding hands in private, staring at each other, stroking each other's cheeks even before the kiss. They might as well have worn flashing signs. "I don't think I'm very good with this affair business."

"Don't look at me." He turned to face her. "Does it bother you that he knows? I'll tell him to keep his mouth shut around Ryuji and the others."

"No, no. I don't want to hide anything while we're here. Morgana will tease you. He wouldn't do anything to actually hurt us." Another reminder that this affair was time-limited. The days and weeks in luxury hotels would give way to their mundane apartments and they would pretend that nothing had ever happened except for saving Hachiro Sato. Which was, of course, what she wanted.

They would have to make the most of it. She swallowed again. "You don't have to wake up Morgana."

"There's only the two bedrooms." His eyes widened and his lips parted. "Oh. You want to—er, that is— Are you sure?"

"Very much so." Her mother would have been horrified at her directness. A lady never asked for sex so bluntly. But then, Sae had had to fight for anything she'd ever really wanted. "If you don't want to, that's all right."

Akira laughed a little. "I thought that was my line." He fidgeted slightly. "I'm just out of practice. I don't want to disappoint you."

"It's...been a while for me, too." And even when she had, they had been brief, furtive encounters in love hotels and no connection beyond the physical. The infatuations of her high school and university years seemed faint and unhelpful. "This is all new to me."

"We've got all night to figure out what we're doing." He kissed her, slowly. Warmth puddled through Sae, and she melted against him. Even the movement of their tongues was languid. Their feet moved almost of their own accord toward the bedroom.

But when Sae reached for the first button on his shirt, he pulled back gently but firmly. "Ladies first," he said, and there was something strange and pained in his voice. He spun her away from her and then his fingers were at her neck, undoing the clasp of her necklace and removing her earrings and laying them both neatly on the dresser. Sae almost teased him, but thought better of it. This, she realized, was the difference between Akira and what she had had before. They were friends—real friends and not just a polite euphemism. This couldn't and wouldn't be just mechanics. For as long as she could have him, Akira would be her lover in every sense of the word.

She snapped off her attorney's badge and let him slide her blazer from her shoulders. "Now is it my turn?" she asked with a smile.

He didn't smile back, and the air was thick with something worse than first-time nervousness. "What is it?"

"I have some scars. Not too bad, but I wanted you to know."

Was that all? "I've seen scars before Hell, I've seen you with your face looking like—" She stopped. She had seen him a bruised and broken mess. Confessions were the queen of evidence, and she had never looked too closely at where they came from. The police almost never left permanent marks, but Shido had wanted Akira dead. They wouldn't have cared how the body looked. "Let me," she whispered.

She unbuttoned his shirt in silence and there they were: raised, red lines against the pallor of his chest. A lump formed in Sae's throat and her vision blurred. It was one thing to know that she had shut her eyes to corruption; it was another to see the evidence now years later when she was doing all that she could to atone. She brushed her lips against his chest and hoped that was enough.

Her own shirt and bra came off in a fluid motion without comment. Cool air caressed her bare skin, and Sae was suddenly, sharply aware that she was no longer in her twenties. Not in bad shape, but not what he would have been used to either. She hadn't been that pretty even when she was his age: too tall, too sharp, too sour. Old defiance welled up within her as she met his gaze and dared him to see the real girl and not a pinup fantasy.

Except he was looking at her like he wanted to have her for dinner. "You are gorgeous." His voice was a growl. "Absolutely fucking gorgeous."

Sometimes she wondered if Akira had hit his head as a child and acquired some rare mental disorder that affected his vision and taste. Or maybe this was a reward for some long-forgotten good deed she had done. Either way, Sae was past questioning it. "You can do more than look, you know," she said and placed his hand on her breast.

They didn't talk a lot after that. Pants followed the rest of their clothing and they tumbled onto the bed. Teeth and nails scraped across her skin. The languid heat had become an inferno, and her world narrowed to his weight under her and the movement of his hips. He was straining, trying to hold back but there was no holding back her own body, no delaying this. Her fingers dug into his flesh as her climax crashed over her.

She came back to herself by degrees. Cool sweat on her back. An almost pleasant pain on her breast. Akira's warm weight beneath her. She looked down. His hair was a complete mess, and sweat poured down his face. He blinked once, twice. "Wow."

Sae laughed and settled herself against him. "Wow" didn't seem adequate. Her body felt heavy and warm, but not tired. Leviathan, Shadows, they all seemed very far away. She and Akira were safe here. She smoothed his hair and kissed him softly. Another new thing. She could just lie here listening to the cadence of his heartbeat. No need for awkward excuses and throwing on her clothes to get back to the office. She had half expected the wildness to consume and leave nothing behind, but this was…comfortable. "You certainly didn't seem out of practice to me," she murmured.

It was his turn to laugh. "Neither did you." He focused with visible effort. "I think I might've overdone in though."

Sae followed his gaze. There was a red mark on her breast, with telltale if rapidly-fading indentions. Well, that explained the pain. "Well, well, our mild-mannered writer has a wild side."

"You're not upset?"

"Look at what I did to you." She traced the shallow scratches she left on his shoulders. "I...it's never been like that before for me. Losing control." It'd never been safe to lose control before, but her body had apparently decided that someone seeing the darkest parts of her meant that a little scratching and biting was all right. "Though we might want to be a little more careful so we don't have to end up answering awkward questions. Or wear scarves in the middle of summer."

He didn't laugh. "What's wrong?"

"You'll laugh at me."

"I handled the cat and the existence of another world. Try me."

It took him a moment to speak, and when he did his voice was soft. "I just...I've seen so much crap that sometimes I forget women actually want to do this. That I can touch you or whatever else and you'll like it. That I won't hurt you."

She wondered how much she would have to bribe someone to sneak into Shido's cell and punch him in the face. Kamoshida too, for good measure. The rape cases had always been the worst, and they left a scar that went far deeper than the victim. Wade around in the muck enough and you started to forget what was healthy. "You won't hurt me. I'll be the first to tell you if you do something I don't want. Same goes for you. Deal?"

"Deal. I draw the line and whips and chains. But I wouldn't mind a little experimenting."

And to think she had once worried about him corrupting _Makoto._ "You are incorrigible, Mr. Kurusu."

"I try." He fluffed her hair. "Stay with me?"

"Of course." Another rule of affairs that they were breaking, but Sae was beginning to discover that Akira cared no more for rules than he had before. Neither did she. She would drink deeply of her happiness while she still could. She burrowed into him, pulled the covers of them both, and fell asleep. But as she hovered on the edge between wakefulness and sleep, a voice whispered.

 _The shadows will not stay silent forever._

* * *

Akira woke with the dawn, the sun warm on his face but his muscles still sore from the night before. He was suddenly wide awake The night before. Sae had asked him to kiss her and he had and they had come back to the hotel and...he looked over. Sae set up in bed, beautifully gloriously naked with flyaway hair but frowning at her phone, as if he had caught her in a liminal state between efficient attorney and passionate lover.

Not a dream then. He could get used to looking at her like this. "Morning."

She looked at him and her face changed. A soft smile played on her lips. "Good morning." She ruffled Akira's hair and kissed him. He was beginning to think she had a thing about his hair. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah." He smiled back at her and gestured to the phone in her hand. "Probably more comfortable for you if you do that in the common room."

Her gaze softened and her cheeks pinked. "You asked me to stay and I did," she said softly. "I didn't want you to worry if you woke up and I wasn't there."

Akira bit his lip. He hadn't lied to her. He'd never had a fling before, only read about them in mangas when he was twelve and fascinated by anything with even a hint of sex. They had trained him to expect the dig of her nails into his skin and the screams and groans that had torn from her throat as she rode him, but not the way she had kissed his scars or the way she was looking at him now. This wasn't just sex, but it wasn't like what he had had with Hifumi either, but something he had no name for. He ran his fingers from her cheek to her jaw. This was quiet and warm and peaceful.

Only… He peered at her. There were dark circles under her eyes. "Did _you_ sleep well? Everything stay quiet?" Even after last night, there was still a part of him that expected her to vanish into the air. For Shadows or just Fate to shatter this temporary happiness.

"Mostly." She sighed and handed him her phone. The browser tab was open to a PDF of what looked like some kind of journal article. "Yes. It's just that there's so much to do. We still have no idea how to get the Kirijo Group to cooperate and the Shadows are still there." She looked down. "I don't know how to fight magic, Akira. I've been looking up post-traumatic stress all morning because that's the closest thing I can think of, but it's still not exact. I was lonely before you came back, but I wasn't mentally ill. Someone or something targeted us and Sato and I don't even know how to start looking for them, let alone defend myself."

The old Joker would have had some bit of bravado for her, but Akira didn't. There were still demons out there, and even when he had had the means to fight them on their own ground, he had only discovered Yaldabaoth at the last possible moment. But...but he wanted to give her something. She had gone out of her way to soothe his insecurities and be gentle in her own way. "There's got to be someone we can talk to. Why don't we brainstorm over breakfast?"

"Well for starters, you can talk to your best friend in the whole world," Morgana said as he nudged open the door. His gaze held way less shock than any magical house pet should have when he found his owner in bed with a woman who had once threatened to put him in jail. "Not nearly so beautiful as Lady Ann, but congratulations!"

A lot of things happened at once. Sae let out a growl that Akira had thought he'd only ever hear from a Mementos denizen. "You...I...get out!" She lunged from the bed. "Out!"

Morgana sniffed and dodged her. "Tell your girlfriend that it isn't nice to menace people, even if they do have paws." He looked her up and down. "Gotta admit she looks way better than the other one. That spiked collar didn't do a thing for her."

Akira blinked and the part of his brain that was still functioning was dimly aware that he should probably do something before his best friend was murdered. He got up and touched Sae's shoulder. "Easy." And then, to Morgana. "Scratch or meow next time, would you? Also, out!"

"I am most cruelly put upon. There had better be some tamagoyaki in this for me." He winked at Akira. "Seriously, good job." And with that, he strutted out of the room.

They watched him in silence. "Well, you said that you didn't mind that he knew," Akira told her at last.

Sae froze for exactly one second. And then she laughed. Not the wry chuckle that had become so familiar to Akira, but an actual guffaw that rang through the bedroom. "I did say that, didn't I? I'm going to kill him. Give me a minute to get dressed and we'll have breakfast and face the music."

Akira went back to his room to dress. He was going to have to have a word with Morgana about privacy. He smiled to himself. They were besieged by Shadows and a life hung in the balance, but silly, everyday things like this still happened. Just like the good old days.

Sae and Morgana were waiting for him at the breakfast table in the common room, having apparently reached a truce. "He pawed at tamagoyaki on the menu," she said. "I hope that's all right."

Akira stared at her. She was wearing a shirt. A mauve shirt. And not even a turtleneck. "You're not wearing your blazer," he said dumbly.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Of course not. It's hot out and we don't have any meetings today." Recognition dawned in her eyes. "Wait, did you think that was all I ever wore? You did, didn't you?"

"I like it. It brings out your eyes." His face burned. "It's not like I ever saw you in anything else!"

She shook her head. "What am I going to do with you, Akira?"

"I can think of a few things." He crossed the distance and kissed her upturned face, enjoying the gasp he pulled from her.

"Hey, guys? I'm right here." But Morgana inclined his head towards Akira. "She must like you if she can put up with lines like that. I told you it wasn't hopeless."

Breakfast arrived a few minutes later, and the three of them dug into their eggs. This, Akira thought, was nice. Good food, beautiful views, a book to work on, and a romance with a woman who was far more than he deserved. It was as if he had finally woken up after a deep sleep. The chains around his heart had broken just as surely as the ones around Arsène on that long ago Christmas eve.

 _But how long you think this satisfy you, boy? I know what you really want._ There was a sharp, stabbing pain behind his eyes and then Akira was someplace else. Sae and Morgana were still seated at the breakfast table, but the view behind them was of Yongenjaya. A newspaper was open on the table. His own photo, smiling broadly and wearing a tailored suit and slacks stared back at him. His doppelganger held a pocketwatch engraved with a quill pen LOCAL AUTHOR WINS SHUGORO PRIZE the headline blared.

Akira frowned. It wasn't impossible for a debut young adult author to win, but he'd told himself it would be enough for him to earn out his advance.

 _But glory, that would be nice. Finally prove to your mother that you chose the right path. And opening those kinds of doors, you could date Sae as an equal. And it's been all about her lately._ The door to his left opened, revealing an immaculate study of darkpaneled wood and law books on the wall behind the desk. Next to one shelf was a framed award for "ethics, integrity, and outstanding service to the legal profession."

Wait. Something wasn't right. This wasn't Sae's apartment.

 _Good catch. It's yours. Well, yours and hers. Seems awfully quick to be fantasizing about this sort of thing, but you always were a romantic. Shame people would laugh at you. The Phantom Thief and the woman in charge of his case. Might give some people ideas and SIU is still a little sore about her leaving. This affair is the best you can hope for. Unless..._

 _Unless?_

 _Unless you become the Phantom again. Change hearts. Somebody has to rule the world. Might as well be you. Come find me when you're ready to talk._

"Akira!"

Akira found himself once more in the hotel. Sae's arms were around him and there was no hiding the fear on her face. Even Morgana looked nervous. "Are you all right? You clutched your head and then it was as if you were a million kilometers away."

"Fine." His voice was hoarse and he reached for the glass of water. It had seemed so real. And so tempting. And crazy. Even if Sae would date him once they got back to Tokyo, you didn't start thinking about the new apartment for at least a year. But still, to have a life with someone who knew what he really was and still wanted him...

"You are a surprisingly bad liar for a thief." She softened. "Our mutual friend?"

"Our mutual friend." He raked his hands through his hair. Maybe it had been naïve to hope that just having Sae in his arms would be enough to drive the voices away. "I don't understand. Last night was everything I wanted and then some. Why didn't it work?"

Morgana rolled his eyes. "Because you weren't doing all that well before Sae made your heart start going pitter-patter. As I've been trying to tell you. Sure the dating helps, but it's only one thing."

"What did he say?"

"Apparently, that I'm an idiot. Those articles you mentioned, about posttraumatic stress, what did they suggest?"

"What you might expect. Don't isolate yourself. Do small things to establish a sense of agency and control." She barked a laugh. "According to the Internet, I might want to consider getting a hobby. Lower stress level."

"We'll take up tennis or something. I'd say ping-pong, but I want to save at least a little of my dignity." He sobered and pulled back to take her hands. "And this? Do you still want this if I can't keep Leviathan at bay all the time?"

"Yes. Oh yes."

Well, that was good then. Akira exhaled. He felt like two very rambunctious children were playing tug-of-war inside him. He hadn't been crazy before all this either, just bitter and rootless. And then Sae and his unknown adversary had broken through the fog. He wasn't sure if that was better or worse.

Morgana coughed. "I'm right he—oh nevermind. But she has a point. Personas, Shadows, all of it are just manifestations of very human feelings. Fear, loneliness, love." He sounded a little sad and Akira wondered if he was thinking of Ann. "We treat this like a regular mental disorder. And maybe that means you should talk to your friends about all this."

"You mean Futaba?" She knew all about hearing voices. And…and it had been too long since they'd talked. She'd gone from a shut-in to running a start-up. They'd meant to keep in touch, but they had always been some VC to meet or story that needed writing. Another connection he had let atrophy.

"I meant in general, but sure. She might as well have been your kid sister."

"I'm going to call Futaba," he told Sae. "Get some grounding. It's not fair for you and Morgana to be my only emotional support. No more cutting myself off. No more being lonely."

She nodded at him. "I'll call Makoto. She'll probably want verification I'm actually on vacation anyway."

 _She has no idea._ He tried very hard not to think about the fact that Makoto wouldn't have any idea what they were up to and never would. He waited until Sae went back to the bedroom, found his phone and called. "Is this a bad time?"

"Akira! No it's not a bad time. It's been way too long. I was starting to think I was going to have to hack the traffic cams if I wanted to see you." Her voice was louder and clearer than it had been in high school, full of life and confidence. He closed his eyes. It was so easy to forget sometimes that he had done good, not just prevented evil, and that good had outlasted the Phantom Thieves. "How have you been?"

"Not good." And, very slowly and carefully and leaving out any hints of Leviathan or his new romance, he told her about the mysterious voice and what he and Sae were trying to do. "I really have no idea what I'm doing here. Unless you can work your magic on the Kirijo servers."

"That would be illegal. Also, I already tried once and got nowhere. But those voices aren't good at all."

"Everyone keeps saying that." He took a deep breath. None of them liked to talk about what they were before the Phantom Thieves—the scars were still too painful. "If you don't mind my asking, how did you deal with the hallucinations?"

"I'm not sure I would call locking myself in my room dealing. I'd have killed myself if it wasn't for you."

"But you didn't. You survived for years."

"Honestly? The headphones. Anything I could do to block it out. Recite poetry or nursery rhymes in your head. Whatever you do, don't talk back. Ignore it."

Which was exactly what he hadn't been doing. "Thanks."

"Anytime. I owe you one. And hey, call me if you need any help with this Shadow investigation."

"You'd do that?"

"Once a thief, always a thief." He could almost see her smile. "You aren't alone Akira."

"Thanks." He didn't trust himself to say more. He wasn't alone. Those he loved were still there if only he would reach out to them.

 _And I do love them Futaba. Morgana. Sae. We were already friends. It's just the sex that has changed things. That kind of love brought down one god. I may not have my Personas anymore, but I have what powered them._ He looked at the ceiling. _I really don't like your odds._

He found Sae in the bedroom. "Did it help?"

"Some," he admitted. "How's Makoto?"

"Lecturing me about being up and working at this hour."

"Well you were working. Technically. While also making out with me."

She shoved him playfully. "You are insufferable. You're going to pay for this. I'm thinking shopping."

Akira laughed. Whatever happened next, he was with those who loved him and no longer trapped in a half-life. And that was worth facing any demon.

* * *

 _I want to thank you guys for the response so far. The story up through ch. 9 is on AO3, though I'm making minor revisions as I upload here because everything up through 7 was written without access to the game. Secondly, Yu's wife was unnamed because I hadn't fully decided a month ago who that was. 98% chance it's Naoto with an outside chance of Marie and done for plot/foil reasons regardless._


	5. Chapter 5

His fingers tingled, and Akira briefly wondered if he could get away with pulling out his notebook in the jewelry store. Suzuki Brothers was far more upscale than the stores he was accustomed to in Yongenjaya. He inspected a diamond necklace. The stones were like teardrops, cascading ever downward, but what drew his gaze was the emerald-cut blue diamond in the middle. It was exactly the sort of thing Empress Katsuki might wear. He tilted his head to one side and watched the light shift as best he could under the glass. Slightly darker in the center, closer to sapphire than ultramarine.

He could feel the eyes of the sales clerk on him. His polo shirt and jeans were not the kinds of things people who shopped here wore. He looked around at the designer jackets and handbags of the customers around him. Not so very different from what he would see at home at first glance, except for the subtle air of wealth and quality. If he looked closer, the differences in stitching and material would reveal themselves, but for now it was just a general, indescribable air of _difference_. He noted that, too. His Phantom was, after all, in love with an empress and unlike Akira, was still intimidated by high society.

"You have very expensive tastes," Sae said from behind him.

Akira turned. Sae sported a new pair of earrings: pearls hanging down from diamonds that had been crafted in the shape of flowers. Just enough flash to be elegant, but not enough to be gaudy. "They suit you." He imagined her in a cocktail dress and holding a wine glass, trying not to look bored as the head of the bar association droned on and on about his new yacht. "Something for those fancy lawyer parties." Or state meetings for royalty trying to get out of an arranged marriage. "But why flowers?"

Sae fidgeted a bit and colored slightly. "I like flowers. Mom thought it would be ladylike to learn all the different flower meanings, and I suppose it stuck."

"Floral motifs are very popular this season," the sales clerk chimed in, apparently having decided that Akira wasn't a potential shoplifter. "Mikmoto just released some very similar pieces."

"But these are for evening, right? You would want a necklace to go with it?"

Sae's eyes widened ever so imperceptibly. "I never thought I would see you interested in jewelry. You don't have to pretend to be interested in everything I do."

"As lovely as those look on you," Akira said with a smile, "this is for the book. Getting to see what the royal court would wear up close." He nodded to the necklace behind the case. "Katsuki's, right there."

"Would you like to see it out of the case? Would it be a problem if my friend had a look?" Sae leaned subtly forward and the earrings dangled and glittered. An implied threat that she could always take her business elsewhere. Akira noted the posture for later use.

"I suppose not," the clerk said and brightened. "A book? Perhaps you would mention us in your acknowledgments section?" And just like that, he was handing Akira a necklace that probably cost his entire advance and then some. He noted the weight and the way it seemed brighter out of the glass, how sharp the facets seemed.

He handed back the necklace with a smile and was about to ask Sae if she needed anything else when Akira saw it. A pocketwatch. Gold, with a deep blue background on the watch face and golden hands and Roman numerals. His lips parted. Maybe it was a silly thing to be fascinated by watches when all anyone had to do to tell time was take out their phone, but he couldn't help it. Almost all the prestigious literary prizes gave the winner a pocketwatch along with the cash prize. He looked at the price tag. Seventy thousand yen. Okay, he was saving this one for celebrating the American publisher accepting the manuscript. No need to dip into his savings for something that wasn't an emergency.

"So you do have an interest in jewelry," Sae said lightly when she noticed him looking. And somewhat expensive tastes."

"Guilty as charged." He smiled. "Always told myself I was going to get one of these. It's like an attorney's badge for writer's, except we don't have to report them when they get lost."

There was a feminine screech behind them. "Oh my God, it's the Phantom!"

The woman was about Sae's age or a little older, but with short, dark hair, thick green eyeshadow and ruby red lips. The scent of her perfume almost forced him to take a step back. She smiled at him and Akira was reminded of nothing so much as a very hungry tiger. "Norika Mushai." Her voice was low and husky and...was she batting her eyelashes? "Oh you are so much more strapping than your picture."

Akira stiffened. He would never quite get used to people who felt okay stopping him in a store or on the street because they thought they knew him from what they had read in the paper or on a website. Most of them were easily dazzled by a smile and may be a selfie, but it didn't look like Norika Mushai would be that sort of person. "I'm sorry. I really should get—"

She didn't seem to hear him took a step closer. "I'm your biggest fan. The way you just appeared on TV and called Shido out—you know I never liked him. Why don't I buy you dinner and I can thank you...privately."

Sae tensed and Akira shook his head at her. It wasn't the first time someone had wanted to express their appreciation. A gentle but firm refusal usually did the trick "That's very kind of you, but my friend and I really have to be going."

Norika looked over and seemed to notice Sae for the first time. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm sure she won't mind. Someone as brave and dashing as you deserves a little bit of fun. All that time slaving away at school and not even a hint of female companionship. You must be wasting away." She put a hand on his chest.

Akira froze. As many times as he had dealt with everything from Kamoshida to the groper on the subway, his brain still checked out. This wasn't supposed to be happening to him, not in a public place where Sae wouldn't be so rude as to hold his hand in public. He breathed in and looked at Norika, forcing himself to be clinical. Thirty-five or thereabouts, shorter than him, with a slight build. Not overweight, but not toned either. Not a physical threat, just a woman with no sense of personal space. And a gentleman didn't use force on a lady who wasn't a physical threat. He was not a monster. He was not Shido.

He stepped back so swiftly and suddenly that she almost lost her balance. "Not interested."

Another shocked gasp from the sales clerk. Not for the first time, Akira wondered what it said when groping and blunt rejection of same were considered equally rude. Sae stood perfectly still, only the flash of her eyes betraying her barely suppressed rage. Akira returned to her side. At least it was over now.

Or maybe not. Norika looked from Sae to Akira. "I get it. She's got her hooks into you. Buying you lots of pretty things you can't afford. I saw you looking at watches. I guess everyone's jumping on the compensated dating bandwagon these days." She glared at Sae. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, preying on a boy barely out of university."

Some deep and howling void opened up within him, and Akira almost imagined that he could see Personas swim before his eyes. Not Arsene or Satanel, nothing so noble as a gentleman thief or an angel rebelling against the heavens. No, what he saw were the parts of himself he had summoned when sheer physical destruction had been required. Kali with her many arms and spinning swords, Cerberus with his teeth and claws. How dare she? How _dare_ she?

And then, just as suddenly, he could see how it looked to the sales clerk, to everyone in the store. The young man who clearly dressed too normally to afford this place telling the attorney with the expensive earrings that she looked lovely in them. They saw her sharp features and height, how she was the opposite of the quiet, delicate flower that was the ideal of womanhood. And they assumed they understood what they saw.

He forced the rage down into a small, cold box deep in his chest where he kept all the other feelings he couldn't act on. Sae was limp and miserable. The sales clerk was gaping openly at the complete and utter shattering of the norms of politeness. Even some of the other customers were starting to stare. He had to do something and quickly. "I would be very careful if I were you," he said in a low voice. "The next person you say that to might have you charged with defamation." He was grimly pleased that Norika's eyes almost popped out of her head.

But Sae still looked sick as they stepped into the courtyard of the Paulowina Mall. Her gaze was distant. "Want to talk about it?" he asked her at last.

"No. Yes. I don't know." She sighed and ran her hands over her face. "After last night and this morning, I almost forgot what people would say. And even then I was selfish enough to only worry what they would say about me."

The polite thing would have been tell her that it didn't bother him, but it did. To have every kiss, every touch, everything they had done last night reduced to a transaction. To have his agency stripped from him, as if he couldn't choose a beautiful and brilliant woman of his own free because she was beautiful and brilliant. He had accepted that Sae had wanted this affair to be temporary because she would be a laughingstock in Tokyo, but this was the first time he had truly understood the social consequences. At least he didn't have to maintain an appearance of absolute integrity to keep his job.

"We know the truth. I'm not some kept man." Some of the anger forced its way out of the little box. "I make more than Ryuji. I was published in the Huffington Post while I was still in school. Granted, they don't pay, but that got me three clients that did. My agent says there's already talk about a manga and a video game!" And then, because a shocked and probably pissed off Sae was better than a miserable one any day of the week, he added, "I have money. About a million yen in a Cook Islands trust. Probably a little more now, if the wealth manager Makoto hired is doing his job."

That got exactly the reaction Akira wanted. Sae stopped walking. Her eyes widened and it seemed to be taking her a great deal of effort not to gape. "What?"

"You don't think we spent all the money we got from the Treasures on fancy dinners, did you? Your sister's pretty responsible, you know. We all have a little money squared away. We're supposed to save it for emergencies."

"What—Makoto—an offshore account? Please, tell me you're joking. You're not, are you? I don't believe this. My little sister has been hiding money away overseas." Akira wasn't sure if she was about to throttle him or double over laughing. Mission accomplished. "I trust you all consulted with a tax attorney."

"Everything is aboveboard and legal, Counselor. I'm thinking of using mine for a down payment on a nicer apartment once everything gets settled down. The one I have now is an insult to sardine cans." He smiled at her and wished they were in a place where he could take her hand and tuck her hair behind her ear. _No one has ever made me as happy as you have, and it's only been a day,_ Akira wanted to say, but didn't "So she had no idea what she was talking about," he said instead. "Coffee? I need to work a little before I hit something. And I'm buying."

Chagall Café didn't hold a candle to Café Le Blanc, but Akira took what he could get in the provinces. Music played softly as baristas in green and white ferried coffee back and forth between couples engaged in low, intense conversation. Perfect. He held Sae's chair for her. "Still like it with just plain cream and sugar?" His own biscotti was a little pricier than his usual order, but a man was entitled to some pride. _I am not kept._

Sae forced a shaky smile. "This is working for you? Because it looks like drowning our sorrows with frighteningly large amounts of caffeine."

"I believe in multitasking." Akira opened his bag and took out a notebook and pen. He needed to get the notes from the jewelry store on paper before he forgot. "It's a good place to people watch. Never know when there's a mannerism or something I'll want to steal."

Coffee arrived, and Akira worked for a while in silence. He could feel the anger leaving him as his pen flew across the page. There was power in the creative act, in knowing he held absolute control over the world in his head. In this world at least, there would be justice and the lovers would find a way to be together, no matter how hard the road seemed.

He had just decided that the captain of the royal guard would have a scar on his cheek just like the man at the next table when he realized that Sae was finished with her coffee and staring at him. "What?" He fought the urge to check his teeth.

"Your pen. I've seen it before somewhere."

"Good eye. Or good memory. Toranosuke Yoshida gave me that before I left Tokyo the first time." He smiled at the memory. Any ability to persuade people, he owed to that man. "I tried to keep a little something from everyone, in case something happened before I could come back. So I could remember them."

"I see." Her voice was tentative. "Did you keep anything from me?"

"Of course. You were my friend even back then." He took out his wallet. "In fact, I have it here now." He presented her with the business card she had given him. "From when you told me Shido would be your last case for SIU."

"My card? Not exactly a fountain pen." She took it from him. Her expression was strange, almost sad as she smoothed the crinkles in the paper and fingered frayed edges. "It's not going to last much longer."

"I—I didn't have anything else I could use." There was a lump in his throat; it was a stupid to be upset about. He looked around and dared to cover her hand with his. "We'll find something here." _As if I could forget you._

"How's the Persona-hunting going?" Junpei sauntered towards them with his hands in his pockets. "Still think you need to handle this yourselves? Or have you decided to just enjoy your vacation?"

"Why not both?"

Junpei's laugh was warm. "You sound like Minato. One day, we're fighting some weird Shadow that looks like a cross, the next day he was taking Mitsuru out for takoyaki. Normal life and Shadow fighting right there mixed together. And sometimes it got even weirder than that. Like the time we had to fight in the club a few doors down during the Dark Hour. Or finding out that the lady who runs the antiques store could make weapons from the things we found in Tartarus."

"Really?" Akira gripped the edge of the table. Somebody else knew about the Dark Hour? Somebody who wasn't working for the Kirijo Group?

"Oh yeah. See she was involved in some experiments about ten years before the whole Nyx thing... I definitely shouldn't be telling you this." He winked at Akira.

Oh. _Oh_. Akira fought a smile. "I didn't hear anything."

"Especially not that we recovered her old journals and gave them back to her. Or that her lunch break is over in ten minutes."

"I wonder what changed his mind," Sae said as they approached Shinshadaou Antiques.

"No idea," Akira said. "But I'm not sure I'll like the reason." He wasn't sure which was worse: knowing that he was being manipulated or being desperate enough that he had no choice but to go along.

The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he entered the store. Swords, axes, and bows hung in a glass case along the far wall. And he could _feel_ the Personas within them. Dormant, but still powerful, like sleeping lions that only needed to be woken up before they ripped your throat out. Even Sae seemed uneasy. "It's like they're alive," she whispered.

"They are, sort of." That other world, the place where he had been able to make an actual difference, only a pane of glass away.

The back door opened and a single eye peeked out. "Can I help you?" a woman asked.

 _Sounds more like she needs our help._ "Yes, ma'am. I want to talk to Dr. Shinshadao about some documents. And why there are Personas inside these weapons."

"Personas? Did Junpei send you? I knew those offerings at the shrine would pay off." She opened the door. She was sixty or so, slightly stooped, with hair in a severe cut. "I am Dr. Shinshadao. And you must be the Phantom. I need your help."

"My help?"

"It's very shameful." She shook her head. "My nephew is a good man, but he's always been terribly fond of gambling. There's a club and casino not far from here where one can indulge in every sort of vice. Run by Okaba."

"Shuji Okaba?" Sae asked.

"Then you know who he is. My nephew owes him forty million yen, but he can't pay. Now Okaba is coming after me. His thugs have ransacked my shop more than once. The police do nothing, the Kirijo Group does nothing. You're my last hope."

"What exactly do you want me to do?" He'd never heard of this Okaba, but that didn't matter. Another parasite, just like Kaneshiro, preying on the innocent. And just like before, the "proper authorities" shut their eyes. _And you want me to trust you to handle things, Mitsuru? Not on your life!_

"Steal his heart, of course! That is what you do? Make people stop doing bad things?"

The world seemed to stop. Sae opened her mouth, but Akira heard nothing. A knife on the wall seemed to shimmer in the light. It was long, with a curved, serrated blade. He had carried such a knife once, when he was the Phantom. _I was thou. Thou were I,_ whispered the metal in his mind. _I was Satan, when thou couldst wield this power. Straining against an indifferent god._

 _And you could have this power again_ , said a more familiar voice. _All you have to say is yes._

Akira blinked. Ignore them, like Futaba said. "I'm afraid there's been some misunderstanding. I—"

"Open up, bitch!" Through the glass, Akira saw two beefy delinquents with bleached hair.

Shinshoudo's eyes widened. "Okaba's people. Hide, quickly." And before Akira or Sae could say anything else, she was shoving them in the back room and bolting the door.

"Him again." Sae's lips twisted into a sneer and for the first time in five years, Akira saw something of her Shadow in her. Her fingers curled around a two-handed sword. "I'd like his head on a pike."

"You know this Okaba guy?"

"Loan shark, smuggler, drug kingpin, and occasional trafficker. If Kaneshiro wasn't running a club, then he was." Her eyes were hard. "Most of the hostesses were very young, very foreign, and very in debt to Mr. Okaba, if you take my meaning. And who thought they were going to be working as babysitters."

"Prostitutes." He closed his eyes. Everyone knew that the girls at the hostess clubs often worked off the clock. And every few months, there would be a raid and some poor girls from Thailand or South Korea with rotting teeth would be dragged out. He shivered. Or sometimes it was local girls who couldn't pay their debts. That was what Kaneshiro would have done with Makoto. "But you couldn't prove it."

"Of course."

"Our boss is losing patience," said a rough voice. "Two weeks, no more."

"I don't have that kind of money."

"Pretty pieces like this? I think you do. You used to work for the Kirijos. Get the ice queen to help you." Something smashed. "Next time, it won't be a vase." The door slammed shut.

For the space of ten heartbeats, there was only silence. Then shuffling footsteps, and the door opened. Dr. Shinshoudo's face was pale and drawn. "I'm sorry you had to hear that." Fragments of a porcelain vase lay strewn about the floor. "But you see why I need your help."

Akira stared at the fragments. Just like Kaneshiro. Criminals were like hydra; destroy one and two more filled the gap. Someone else would sell drugs. Someone else would blackmail teenagers. Someone else would try to ruin a public prosecutor because he could. Someone else would... "I can't change his heart. That power was taken from me."

 _And now you are mortal. Stuck in the muck and the mire. Kamoshida and Shido were just a symptom. The world is sick._

Yes. Yes it was. He could be treated like a commodity, sexually harassed. A woman could be groped in public and it was her fault for bringing drawing too much attention. Another could be all but accused of hiring a prostitute. All while the authorities sat on their ass and did nothing. No, they propped up the rotting edifice so they could keep their skyscrapers and fancy cars. _I am the only thing that ever helped._

 _Yes, good._

The knife seemed to whisper again as blackness swirled around it. _Thou canst be me again. Take the blade. He Who Must Not Be Named shalt reveal the portal in due time._

He took a step forward. Why not take the blade? Why not impose justice on the world and give everyone their due? Sae could live like an empress and men like Okaba would suffer as they made others suffer. Wasn't that what the authorities were supposed to be for?

A strong grip encircled his wrist and one fingers stroked his back and neck. "Easy, Akira," Sae murmured, too quietly for Dr. Shinshoudo to hear. "Block it out. I'm here. You don't need what that thing is offering."

No, he didn't. And Sae, Morgana, and everyone else would hate him. He leaned against her, letting the warmth sink in and drive out the chill of the grave that swirled around him. She didn't think he was weak or helpless. Men like Okaba could be brought down in this world of flesh and blood. He could save one life at a time. Including Shinshoudo and her nephew. "Thank you," he whispered. He was dimly aware Shinshoudo was staring at them and decided he didn't much care.

Sae straightened, but kept her hand on his back. "What I don't understand is why the Kirijo Group won't help. You are a former employee and assisted Ms. Kirijo in saving the world."

"Mitsuru isn't helping because she can't," said Junpei from behind him. He bowed to the doctor. "Why don't you get some tea while I get this cleaned up."

"I—yes." But as the doctor passed, Akira heard her whisper, "You promised that you would help," and Junpei flinched.

"What do you mean Mitsuru can't help?" Sae asked. "Why did you send us here? Mementos is no more. No one can steal hearts."

"I kinda hoped the reports were wrong about that part." Junpei retrieved a broom and dust pan from the back room. "Look, the Kirijo Group isn't as strong as it looks, and they have to be careful about who they piss off. Okaba's supposed to stick to drugs and gambling, maybe selling alcohol to minors if he's feeling adventurous. Other people would be upset if they knew he was branching out."

"You mean other yakuza clans," Sae said. "Clearly, he's not keeping his end of the bargain."

"Clearly. But every time he might get caught, the witness goes missing or the evidence gets trashed. And it's always delinquents instead of his own people that do the shakedowns in public. Mitsuru needs proof or Port Island would get caught in a gang war that makes Strega look peaceful. She needs an outsider to get that proof."

"And that's where we come in?"

"And Dr. Shinshoudo would give you the documents. I get my proof; you get your proof. It seemed like a fair deal."

Akira watched as Junpei swept up the shattered porcelain. He could feel a different kind of cold settling on him, the same kind had felt when Morgana had told him what he could do. "You need somebody to get in debt to this guy and wear a wire. Somebody with their own black-market connections so the tech couldn't be traced back to you and is a good enough actor to fool a yakuza boss." He inhaled. "I can do that."

"That…that could work."

Sae crossed her arms, and her eyes narrowed the way they did when she was angry and trying not to show it. "I brought you here to persuade Mitsuru, not so you could get shot." She rounded on Junpei. "How do I know she would do anything?"

"Because…because you can't go back to indifference when you've seen the darkness of the human heart." He closed his eyes. "I can do this. I don't mind the danger."

"Mr. Iori, why don't you check on Dr Shinshoudo and the tea?" Sae's voice was ice. "I'd like to speak to Akira alone."

 _Uh. oh._ Even Junpei seemed to know something was up because he stammered something Akira couldn't hear them beat a hasty retreat.

But when Sae turned around, she didn't look angry. She looked tired. "We tried to get Okaba for a year. I've seen photographs of what he does to people who make him angry," she said quietly. "Their bodies were drained of blood, as if they were cattle. And this time, I won't have any illusion powers that can save you."

"I know." He swallowed. The month between what he thought had been Leviathan's transformation and stealing Shido's heart had been the worst of his life. Never knowing if there would be a knife in the dark, if Goro or some other assassin would find a way to kill him. His nerves had been scraped raw from fear and lack of sleep. "But I'm a good actor. I can become what ever I need for this. Even pretended to be your sister's boyfriend once, to get another lowlife."

Her expression didn't change. "You would need a bankroll to lose enough to pique Okaba's interest. At least one million yen. And I've spent my discretionary funds for the next year."

"One million?" He thought of the money in that distant, secret account. His future, everything that separated him from becoming a starving artist. He would be stuck in that apartment for who-knew-how-much longer. He might have to come crawling back to his mother. And… _She's got her hooks into you. Buying you lots of pretty things you could can't afford._

And so Hachiro Sato would die for his pride. And so a monster he could stop would run free. He could still do good, quietly, mundanely. The demon spoke of glory, but the mundane and boringly adult path to victory would require sacrifice. A heist without guns or magic fire or even weapons that glowed and whispered to him.

The presence in his head seemed to falter. _Oh, that scares you, doesn't it?_ Akira thought. _All you have is temptation and a few magic tricks. But if I can bring Okaba down, I don't need what you're selling._ "I can do that too. It'll take a few days to get the money, but it'll take me that long to plan the infiltration.

Sae's eyes were wide with sudden panic. "Your life savings? No! I absolutely forbid it!"

"I'm saving for an emergency. This is an emergency."

"Don't do this." Her voice was raspy, pleading. "Don't throw away your life for some infatuation. For me. I'm not worth it."

"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for Hachiro Sato and for Dr. Shinshoudo. I would still do it if you have never kissed me."

"You sound like my father. Or Makoto." She slumped against the wall. "I am so sick of watching people I care about walk into hell when I can't do anything. And yet, it seems I keep sending them there." She closed her eyes, and the room stilled again. "Take me with you."

"What?"

She opened her eyes, and there was no softness or pain in her voice, just the steel of a woman who would do anything to win her case. "I've planned sting operations before. I know how the games will be rigged And the yakuza can be so terribly conventional. A woman losing and begging will be seen as more vulnerable and therefore less suspicious."

Some part of was forced to admit that her points were logical. That didn't help much. She could be killed. Or enslaved. Or something even worse than what a mortal could dream up. "You have Leviathan in your head, and you want to go to a casino?"

"I want to be as far away from one as possible. But maybe…maybe if I can do this, the voices will stop for good." The steel vanished, and she seized his hand. "Please. Makoto faced down Kaneshiro to save my career. After I drove her to it. I just want to do some good. Put things right."

What a pair they were: that thief trying to control his megalomania and the attorney still questing for redemption that she had earned long ago. "All right. A heist it is." He took out his phone. "Futaba? Is that offer still good? I need your help."

He only hoped they would survive to enjoy the rewards.


	6. Chapter 6

_The girl couldn't have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three, with dark skin and darker eyes. Her neckline was low and her makeup was garish, but it was a nightmare vision of seduction Her cheeks were gaunt and her eyes were slightly sunken. "Please, you must help me." Her Japanese was atrocious, and Sae had to strain to understand her. "I was promised a job. Talking to people."_

 _"It's not the talking we have a problem with." Hata's voice was rough and unsympathetic. He was, as he liked to remind Sae, thirty years her senior and not best pleased with having to take the new girl fresh out of law school under his wing. "But being a whore is very illegal. You understand the word, don't you?"_

 _"Mr. Okaba, he makes me do things. Says I have a debt to repay."_

 _"A debt?" Horror filled Sae. It was one thing to hear her father's stories about what could happen to unlucky girls. It was another to see it. "You're slave? We have to—"_

 _Hata's grip on her shoulder was like a vise. "A word, Ms. Niijima. In private." He almost dragged her to the break room._

 _"We have to help her," Sae said, with as much force as she could muster when they were alone. "That's what this office is for."_

 _He laughed, but it was bitter and broken. "We make the politicians feel all nice and comfy and we don't take cases we can't win."_

 _"But he's selling a woman! There's no justice in this."_

 _"Who has money and would sue us if we tried to arrest him. Book the girl and get an easy win." He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's all just a game. Justice has nothing to do with it."_

Sae blinked and was once more in the present, staring at the files Futaba had retrieved from the prosecutor's office. She had never seen that girl again and had tried not to think of her as she rose ever higher on those easy wins Hata had advised. Hata himself had resigned in disgrace along with most of the rest of Special Investigations after Shido was arrested. And Sae was here, trying to find all she could about a host club so she could pretend to be a very bored, very lonely woman and get some information.

 _Well, that shouldn't be too hard,_ said Leviathan. _The world already thinks that's what you are. You might as well embrace it. That's your trouble. Always trying to swim against the current, but you just don't have what it takes. Might as well get the benefits of living down to your mediocrity._

The Shadow or whatever it was inside Sae's head must have been very upset with her plans, because the voice had become both more frequent and more scornful. Sae did her best to ignore it. Some days were easier than others.

Fuki's was to all appearances a legitimate club owned by Okaba's entirely legitimate corporation. It differed from other host and hostess clubs only in serving both men and women, on separate floors. She and Akira would be visiting to see if they could find a way into the mythical gambling den. "Almost like a date," Akira had said with a tight smile. "Where we don't see each other. And flirt with other people."

Akira emerged from the bedroom, but he didn't look like Akira. She had found a suit for him, dark and nondescript as any salaryman's. He had slicked his hair and brushed it away from his eyes. Sae inhaled. And he was wearing the glasses again. She had forgotten how different he looked with them: meek, inscrutable, someone her gaze would pass over because there was no reason for her not to. His hands were in his pockets and his shoulders were hunched, as if he were already trying to disappear. "How do I look?" He even sounded the same way he had when she had stopped for coffee at Café Le Blanc.

"Like a perfect little office worker too busy and terrified to talk to girls." She motioned to his glasses. "Can you take those off for now?" And all the rest of it too. Sae had known there was something wrong with this strange boy five years ago the first time she had walked into the café. At the time, she thought it was because he was a delinquent. Now she knew it was because he had been shoving down the best parts of himself to stay out of trouble—to stay beneath her notice. "I prefer the real you. Easier to talk to."

"And other things." He put the glasses on a side table and loosened his tie. "Always hated these things. Feel like I'm going to choke."

"Good thing you're a freelancer."

"Good thing." His eyes darkened and Sae knew she had said the wrong thing. One million yen gone, just like that. Akira had said he wasn't doing it for her—and Sae chose to believe him to keep herself sane—but if she had never called him, he would still have his emergency fund. He could have afforded a month here or there when work dried up. He would never have had to work for twelve hours a day and a job he couldn't stand, nodding and smiling and watching his free time burn up socializing with colleagues who wanted to be home as bad as he did. Never shove himself back into that little box again.

 _You are poison to everyone you ever cared about. Makoto being blackmailed was your fault. Akira went to juvenile hall because of you. And now, he's broke too. You might as_ well _pay for the company. At least he would be getting something for it._

He softened. "It's okay," he said and put his arms around her. Sae sank into the warmth and strength of his chest. Over the past few days, they had learned that physical intimacy could silence the voices for a time. Sometimes that meant a repeat of that first night, with sex that left them exhausted and satisfied and mindless. And sometimes it was just holding and being held. She burrowed her nose into his neck and enjoyed the feel of his hands on her hair. _This isn't for sale. He wants me, and I want him_.

"We should go," he said at last. "Those hosts and hostesses aren't going to chat up themselves." He pulled back. "Why can't Okaba be involved in something nice and nonthreatening, like cage fighting?" He ran his hands over her arms. "Nervous? Makoto kind of lost it whenever she had to act."

"It's not really my area of expertise," she admitted.

"The key to a good con is to know what people expect you to be and do that. Just act really overworked, like nobody listens to you, and that you want nothing more than the world than to have somebody to complain to."

So exactly what she had been before, mixed with a little of that woman from the jewelry store. She took a deep breath. _You're in luck, Leviathan. I'm going to let you out._ She stepped close and ran her fingers over the lines of his chest. "Don't have too much fun," she whispered. She kissed him, angling her mouth the way he liked and nibbling on his lower lip until she tore whimpers and gasps from his throat. This was real, this was what she wanted. They would come back to the hotel and she would muss his hair and make love to him until there was no trace of the things they were pretending to be left.

Half an hour later, Sae stood outside of Fuki's and tried not to throw up. Men and women from all walks of life thronged on the street as bouncers with high-necked collars kept watch over the two-story building. There was no sign of Akira, and Sae patted her pocket to double check her phone. Everything was going to be fine. Okaba would want their money. He had never met either of them. No reason to remember the name of a junior prosecutor who had never even gotten close to him. She would be perfectly safe.

She wondered if this was how Makoto had felt.

The bouncer gave her a glance up and down, taking in her blazer and pants, but barely looking at her face. "Second floor. Two drink minimum. It costs extra if you want to talk sex."

Sae took the elevator to the second floor and was ushered into a dimly lit room with pulsing music. Some poor man was on stage trying to do a comedy sketch involving a rubber chicken, but no one seemed to be paying attention. Dozens of men and women sat talking at tables, seemingly heedless of anything but their conversation and their drinks. Women dressed much as she was, in blazers and slacks or skirts. The hosts looked about Akira's age, with silver jewelry that glinted neon in the light and bleach blond hair. As if she needed a reason to feel more self-conscious. She was ushered into a table in the back corner and picked a host more or less at random.

His stage name was Phoenix, he said, after the Featherman character. He was as blonde as the rest of them, with short, spiky hair and a deep tan. He had a soft, pleasant, laugh and a smile that was more cute than enthralling.

"And what is a lovely woman such as yourself doing in a place like this?" He leaned forward and put his hand next to hers, not quite touching but letting her know it was allowed. Absolutely nonthreatening and absolutely interested. He probably got a lot of commissions that way.

Be what he expected. Right. She could do this. "Just looking to unwind. Work is, well, a bitch." She looked around. "This is my first time in this kind of place. I was expecting something a little more exciting." _Please tell me where I can find the illegal gambling._

"We aren't entertaining you? I must rectify that immediately. I have some special talents." He produced a pack of cards from a hidden pocket. "Pick a card."

"Excuse me?"

His mask slipped a little. "I used to entertain my little sister with card tricks. Some of the other guests love it."

 _Keep him talking. Whatever you do, keep him talking._ She touched his hand and tried to laugh. It sounded harsh and forced. How did this normally work? All these women talking and laughing and so desperate for affection. She just had to be one of them. And at least one entity in the room thought she already was. _All right, show me what I would be if Akira had never come. You are me, after all._

The laughter in her head was hers but higher and more bitter. She saw the bottles of champagne and Phoenix's pretty face. All here for her benefit because she had paid for the privilege. There was no love or justice, only petty pleasure. Didn't she deserve that much? She had paid for his time and she was going to get it.

 _Isn't this so much easier than fighting against current?_

Easier. And empty.

She grabbed his hand. "Show me."

But when he took the deck in hand, Sae forgot how to breathe. His index finger was on the side of the deck facing away from her, the other three fingers on the right, and his thumb on the left. Standard mechanic's grip, known by every card cheat and dealer in the world. Easy to slip in a card or two off the top. "You look like a gambler," she said smoothly.

"I been known to deal a hand or two of cards in my time. In fact, if you really want some excitement around here, that can be arranged. I—"

That was when she saw him. Okaba. He hadn't changed much from the photographs of all those years ago. As tall and thin as Kaneshiro was short and fat, with thick brows and a square jaw. His suit was bright red and he wore a gold chain around his neck. Her gaze went to his prosthetic fingers. He'd lost the real ones years ago when he was a shatei for some unknown failure. The rumor was that he'd had the man responsible chopped to pieces and thrown into the river after he had ascended the ranks.

Phoenix followed her gaze and frowned. "Well, somebody put the boss in a foul mood," he muttered under his breath. "Hope it wasn't Anya."

"Who's Anya?"

He blinked, and could almost see him fighting a curse. "No one of consequence. People like you and me, we're all about the fun, right?"

"We are indeed. And I believe you are about to tell me where I could find some fun? I do so love cards. Very bad at it, though."

"As you should be. Cards and roulette are illegal. But at Fuki's, we do strive to give the customer what she wants. You might try the basement, if you can get a pass card. And perhaps formal wear. We do of course appreciate generosity. But of course, that's just me talking."

"And I appreciate good service. And good company." She ordered another drink. "We must play together sometime. I'm sure you would be an excellent partner. As long as you promised to go easy on me."

"How could I not? You'll have to speak to one of the bouncers, though." His words were starting to slur. "I like you. At least you keep your hands to yourself, mostly. Some of the women, here..."

 _I think you should stick to card tricks. You're a sweet boy, too sweet for this place._ She sipped her drink for another ten minutes and left with a smile and a promise of a bottle for next time. And all around her, the terrible, desperate laughter.

She and Akira had set a rendezvous point for a dingy little alley half a block away. Akira was already there, leaning against the wall and looking as if he had had about as much fun as she had. He looked up at her approach. "Sae!" She let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding as he came to her. He smelled faintly of cheap booze, and he still looked all wrong, but at least he didn't seem to be hurt. The thrumming music of the club faded away, and the world seemed a little sharper, a little more real.

"We have got to get that pass card," he said when she had told him what she'd learned. "I don't think any of the hosts or hostesses have one. The girls I was with didn't mind talking about the gambling den once they were drunk enough, but nothing about a pass card." His face turned scarlet. "And trust me, they were very… eager to answer."

"Have fun, did you?" She smiled despite herself. "Weren't you the one telling me about a good con?"

"Apparently I can only flirt with gruff lawyers with great legs. Who I'd like to take back to the hotel. Right now."

 _I've created a monster._ "That can be arr—"

He put a finger over her lips. "Did you hear that?"

She did. Footsteps. Two sets: one heavy and one lighter. Akira pulled her against him and pressed them both to the wall, melting into the shadows. Okaba came charging down the alley, dragging a girl of no more than twenty with blonde hair and pale skin. Sae's breathing came in short, shallow gasps, and her body was cold. _Okaba chops his enemies to pieces. Not that we ever found the bodies after._ She tried to take some comfort in Akira's arms around her. It didn't work.

"What the hell did you think you were doing in there, Anya?" His voice was a roar. "The customer pays for a good time, you fucking give him a good time! If that means letting them touch you, you do it. If that means letting them fuck you, you do it!"

"He was talking about strangling me! And I think he might've actually done it."

"Lots of guys like to talk about that kind of thing. He knows how much it would cost me if you died. As long as they pay up, we let them indulge whatever sick fantasies they have. Got it? Because if you don't get it, I might have to make you more comfortable with his tastes myself."

And, just for a moment, Sae forgot her fear. It was one thing to mix together sex and violence. To know the safe danger of someone you trusted brushing a knife against your skin or biting and scratching when you made love. It was another for death—real death, not some carefully choreographed game—to be staring you in the face. Or to look in those terrified eyes and be told you couldn't help because the law was only a game. She wished she had that heart-stealing power, so she could crush him.

She could feel Akira trembling with a barely-suppressed rage. "Can you act drunk?" he whispered.

"What?"

"I bet he has a pass card. If you can distract him for a few minutes, I can take a picture to get a copy made. Can you do that?"

Sae closed her eyes. Could she do it? It was one thing to ask him to include her, or to sip drinks in a club, but out here in the dark with trash under her feet, the last thing she felt like was an actress. Makoto might be able to stare down a yakuza boss, but her sister had always been smarter and braver. Better.

Another memory. Akira, bruised and half out of his mind from the drugs, smiling at her with bloodied teeth. _"She did it for you, you know. Because Kaneshiro was going to blackmail you and because she wanted you to be proud of her. To…not be a burden."_

She nodded and staggered forward. "Hello," she said a bit too loudly. "Can you direct me to the train station? I seem to have gotten…turned around."

Okaba gaped at her as if no one had ever asked him for directions before. Which might actually be true, come to think of it. "What? Do you know who I am?"

"No clue. But then, it's not like I get up to the city much. I really should, though. There's this great club, Fuki's. I swear, you can get everything there. I spent a fortune tonight. Have you been?"

Okaba relaxed. Men. Flatter them a little and they'd fall for anything. "I own it."

"Really?" She put a hand on his arm, as if to steady herself and subtly turned him away. "Because I met the most charming host. I was hoping we could have a more…private session." The words tasted like ashes in her mouth. This was what Leviathan—what she—had thought was the best she could hope for? "He said I would have to talk to the boss."

He looked between her and Anya and frowned. "This isn't the place."

She imagined the darkness within her rising up and it was Leviathan's sneer that crossed her face. "The daily grind. It gets to you. All those men calling you a bitch because you're trying to do your job. I deserve better. And I'm willing to pay."

"I see." He made a contemptuous gesture at Anya. "I'll deal with you later. Go."

Anya took off. Akira slipped behind Okaba and lifted something out of his pocket. "Two minutes," he mouthed, but there was an odd, pained look on his face.

 _Think of that woman, her hand on Akira's chest. Think of what she wanted, what she thought you wanted. A piece of meat to be bought and sold like any other._ "A little power, a little pleasure. You understand."

His eyes hardened and she knew that he hated her, a desperate grasping thing so nakedly upending all that a woman should be. But he said, "I believe I do."

Every man had his price.

 _And so much easier, just treating them like they treat you. Whatever you think you feel for the boy won't last. You know that. Time is running out. I can't give you power anymore. You screwed that up. At least let me save you from the pain. I'm the only one who will._

"I've had it with emotional complications." Her voice didn't quite sound like hers. Pleasure was the only thing she could hope for. That was why she had made this a temporary affair. That was why—

"Oof." Okaba grunted as a pedestrian embroiled in his phone collided with him. Akira. Sae blinked, and the darkness receded. Akira made a quick motion, replacing the pass card. Only then did his head snap up and his face contort into an expression of pure terror. Okaba's eyes flashed.

"Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry sir, sorry!" Akira held up his hands and cowered. Actually cowered. And as much as she hated the glasses, they did wonders in making Akira look weak. "Please, don't hurt me."

"You're lucky I don't." He nodded to Sae. "You can continue this conversation with one of my associates at a later date."

"You know what I love about people like him?" Akira said when Okaba had stormed off. "How they always manage to be complete jackasses as well as monsters. Did wonders for my conscience back in the day. Meanwhile…" He held up his phone. "A friend of a friend will be happy to make us a pass."

"Do I want to know about this friend of a friend?"

"Probably not." He exhaled. "You are a much better actress than your sister."

"You have to be to survive SIU office politics for more than five minutes."

"I suppose." The pained expression was back. "For a moment there, I thought you were your Shadow."

"For a moment, I was. Everything so hollow and empty. Nothing good in the world or in me. Just spite and power and a rigged game." She shivered despite the heat. So easy to treat people as things, to just stop caring. To...almost kill her own sister because of a petty grudge. "I was a complete and utter bitch back then."

"Not a complete one," he said lightly. "Just cynical and bitter and—I'm going to shut up before I get in trouble. But I do like you better now."

Still... "If I lose this fight and you don't..." She let the words hang in the air unspoken, but he had to know how she would finish that sentence. _If I lose myself again, just kill me. Better a corpse than a demon._

And he must have, because his eyes went wide and he seized her hands with enough force to make her gasp. "You won't lose. I won't let you." He turned her hand to kiss her fingertips and palm. "I. Wont. Let. You."

She shuddered again. The knight swearing to fight the darkness to save his lady. It was a pleasingly romantic image, one worthy of one of his books. And not something she had ever considered herself worthy of. That kind of romance happened to other people. Good people.

 _It's a fling. Hormones. Transient. And it's certainly not up to him whether I win or lose. It's up to you. And you created the Palace. I just lived there. You used me tonight, and you'll use me again when you remember that this is temporary. Love brings only pain._

"I won't let you either." And maybe it wasn't the most romantic declaration in the world, but for tonight it was enough that he was real and solid and wanted her. And that she—Sae Niijima, not Leviathan with its ashes and bitterness—wanted him. And if that would bring pain when they had to return to Tokyo, well, she had seen the alternative.

Sae was on him as soon as the door to the suite closed, ripping off the glasses and loosening his tie until he was Akira again. Her Akira. "I want you." She shook her head. No, that wasn't quite right. She wanted to burn away the memory of everything she had seen and done, everything she might have been but wasn't. "Tell me what you want," she whispered. "This is about you tonight."

"Sae, you don't have to—"

She put a finger to his lips. "I want to."

"Okay. Okay." He let out a long, shaky breath. "Anything I want?" He took her face in his hands and kissed her, slowly as he had that first night. Exploring again and drawing gasps from her. She raised her hand to twist it in his hair.

But he pulled back. "No." His voice was still shaky, but there was something else there too. Smug, playful. Joker. "You keep your hands to yourself. No touching me. No touching yourself. Got that?"

Well, this was new. "I'm supposed to be doing this for you."

"You said anything I want. This is what I want." He softened a little. "Trust me?"

"Of course." The words came so quickly and easily that it sent a jolt through her. She trusted him. He knew her limits and wouldn't push them. The knife might caress, but never cut. The scratch would never draw blood. One "stop" would end this. "I place myself in your hands, Mr. Kurusu."

He kissed her again, but there was something different in the movement of his lips. Practiced, deliberate. He moved over to the spot under her ear and sucked. Heat sparked within her. Delicious. Maddening. Like the first bite of a dinner she couldn't possibly eat fast enough. He removed her blazer and jewelry for her as he always did, except it seemed to take him forever to put her earrings in the jewelry box. By the time had removed all her clothing, Sae was ready to scream.

But she had promised. So instead she met his gaze as he surveyed her with familiar hunger. "On the bed." She could take pleasure in how ragged his voice was. A very small amount of pleasure when he was still dressed and hadn't even touched her yet. "Stretch yourself out."

"And to think you were blushing and stammering a few minutes ago." Better to tease him then to blush and stammer herself. Or worse, break the rules of this little game. The way he was looking at her, clenching and unclenching his fists... He was safe, but safe wasn't the same thing as tame.

"I told you, it's different when it's you. I want you. Hell, I want you." And then he was on top of her, touching and kissing her bare skin at last. Pinching and rolling her nipples just the way she liked and kissing his way down her body. Tracing the lines of her muscles. Pleasure and pain and heat all mixed together until she was nothing more than a jumble of sensation.

He put his hands on her hips and parted her legs. Hot, quick kisses to the inside of her thigh, trailing slowly, leisurely, maddeningly upward. First one leg and then the other. No inch of flesh neglected. She trembled against him. If he had been this thorough as a thief, Yaldabaoth had never stood a chance. But Sae didn't want thorough right now. She wanted relief from the pressure building between her legs. "Faster," she growled.

He kept kissing her, drawing closer to the center but never quite reaching it. She grabbed his head and try to force him to give her some relief, but he ducked away from her and pulled back altogether.

"What are you doing?"

"I said no touching. You touched." Again with the smug tone. "I think I'm just going to leave you like this. Maybe get some work done."

What? No he couldn't. He wouldn't. But he was just looking at her with that small, insufferable smile. She tried to tell him to go to hell, but it came out as a moan.

"Of course, I could be convinced otherwise." His voice changed to a low growl and a thought penetrated her desperate mind. This was the moment he had been planning for all along. "Beg me. Tell me that you want this."

"Akira..." She could tell him to stop and he would. He would even bring her to a climax. She had never begged for sex before in her life. But then she had never wanted anyone this badly before in her life. Their eyes met, and she saw him falter. She wasn't the only one who needed to wash away Okaba's stink. "I want you. Just you. Please."

One, two, three strokes of the tongue and Sae exploded.

When it was over, she lay on her back, panting, tired and thoroughly satisfied. Akira, still fully dressed except for jacket and tie, held her. He stroked her hair and planted soft kisses on her forehead and temple. "Was that good?" He didn't sound smug at all now.

"Very. I'm still going to make you pay for it."

"I'm looking forward to it. I think." He kissed her and she tasted herself on him. "I liked seeing you like that. Losing control. And it's nice to spoil you for once."

"And to hear someone say 'yes.'"

"That too." He stroked the lines of her cheek and jaw. "But you don't have to let me be on top to prove that you aren't Leviathan anymore. In fact, I'd say you qualify for genuine hero status."

She wondered if she would ever believe him. If she could face down enough crime bosses and save enough innocent men from the gallows to wipe out everything she had done. Or if the guilt would just stay there and ache like a scar. "Do all writers flatter the women they take to bed this much, or is it just you?"

He laughed, and Sae could feel some of the muck and mire of the red light district fall away. "You're in this book, you know."

"You named your hero the Phantom. I imagine we're all in the book. And every good thief needs someone trying to catch him."

"No, no. You don't understand. That empress I told you about? That's you."

"You made me the _love interest_?"

He smiled sheepishly. "I started writing the romance just after you asked me to come with you. And, well, I thought if I was going to have a hopeless crush, I might as well get some use out of it. And then it turned out to be not quite so hopeless."

"Empress. I like the sound of that." Being immortalized in a book. Another romantic thing that didn't happen people like her, unless they were cast as the sympathetic villain. Another thing she didn't deserve, except Akira thought she did. For some reason.

"She's not just the empress. I wouldn't want my hero to be a social climber. Katsumi is beautiful, brilliant. And, after tonight, I think I'll make her a decent actress."

"Laying it on a little thick, there."

"Occupational hazard."

"I'm dating the biggest sap in Japan." I have _no idea how it happened, but I think I managed to hit the jackpot._ "Who is about to learn a very important lesson in dealing with royalty." She rolled on top of him and smiled. "Don't dish out what you can't take."

She watched him sleep, after. He looked so frightfully young when he slept, with his hair falling into his face like that. Too young to be conning crime lords and far too young to have already fought a battle for all of reality. She ran her fingers over the scars on his chest. "You deserve so much better than you've gotten," she whispered. If this were one of his books, he would be festooned with medals and praised as a hero. Not sent to juvenile hall or spending his life savings to save people. He should be writing books and never wearing another tie again.

That settled it. She was going to buy him that pocket watch. And if he had anything to say about that, she would remind him that an empress could dispense her favors as she chose. Even icy lawyers were allowed to dote on...on someone they were falling for. Oh, she was miserable at this affair business."You know, I think you're in very serious danger of breaking my heart."

At least she still had one.


	7. Chapter 7

"'Top Ten Stupidest Bets to Make at a Casino,'" Morgana read from the screen. "You know, I liked it better when our last-minute heist prep was things like making sure we had enough lockpicks. And when I could shoot the things that were going to try to kill you if anything went wrong."

"It'll be fine." Akira returned to studying the screen and tried to ignore the creeping cold in his gut. Caution kept a good thief alive, but worrying about what would happen if he failed would just make him stupid. "And we have gadgets. My cufflinks? Combination camera and comm. Futaba will be in my ear the whole time. All I need is a pair of sunglasses and I'm practically a secret agent." That and the matching necklace for Sae had given Iwai's contact fits. If he was going to go broke, he might as well do it in style. "I even have the beautiful woman on my arm."

"You are a true gallant, my friend." Morgana flinched. But could you try to keep it down at night? Your offending my poor, delicate ears."

"Sorry." More like himself. He looked in the mirror. The man staring back at him had a loose, easy posture and an embarrassed smile on his face. He actually looked like the Phantom and not a boy pretending to keep his head down or a student who had settled for merely existing. Had Sae done that? He'd discovered there was power to be had in sex. Not in breaking someone like Shido or Kamoshida, but in learning how to make Sae lose control, in knowing that he was doing exactly what she wanted, in knowing that he didn't have to hold back. That the woman he wanted wanted him.

"Akira?" Sae called from her bedroom. "Can you come here for a minute?"

Morgana nudged his hand. "Go on, lovebird. Just remember you've got a schedule to keep."

His mouth went dry when he saw her. Sae stood with her back to him staring at her reflection in the vanity, head held high and her eyes hard. The hostesses had advised formalwear, and Sae had apparently decided that if something was going to force her into a dress, she might as well be the most gorgeous person in the room. The purple material seemed to shimmer and catch the light, and the dress was cut to flatter without being tasteless. The pendant around her neck drew just the right amount of attention to her chest. No one would ever guess that she was recording everything. And that slit up the side of her leg… He licked his lips.

"You can put your tongue back in your mouth now." She smiled at him, but there was something distant and slightly annoyed in her voice. "Zip me up in the back?"

He closed the distance between them. Up close, he could see fatigue and anxiety mixing with the defiance in her eyes and the cold in his stomach was suddenly hard. "She's here?" He had a brief, wild fantasy of picking up the jewelry case on the dresser and smashing the mirror into a million pieces.

"And making it an absolute nightmare to do my makeup." She looked down. "Do I look like her?"

"What?"

"Do I look like her in this dress?" Her voice was soft and a little panicked. "I keep thinking I do, that the slit is too much or that I shouldn't wear purple heels."

"Well, I don't think green would've gone too well with the dress."

"Don't joke."

He sighed and put his arms around her. _Please, forgive yourself. I wish I could make you see what I see._ And maybe he could. "You both are tall, have medium-length gray hair and wear earrings and purple shoes. Other than that, you're gorgeous and she's hideous. And don't say it's because I'm sleeping with you. I thought she was ugly even back then."

She looked at him in surprise. "I've been getting a good look at her for the last fifteen minutes. Are you absolutely sure that you were a teenage boy?"

"Believe it or not, even teenage boys can have standards. Sometimes." How to explain it to her? "I think you're sexy because I know you. That you were smart enough to figure out that Shido was behind everything and dedicated enough to run across Japan trying to prove that Personas exist for the sake of one man. And she was ugly because she was an insecure bully on a power trip. At least when you play games with me, it's about making us both feel good."

Akira ran a hand down her side and she shuddered. _Screw you, Leviathan. If you want to be jealous of something, be jealous that there's more to her than your spite and bitterness._ And then, very slowly and deliberately, he planted a kiss between her shoulder blades. Another. Another. Over onto her shoulders and down her spine. His teeth scraped her skin, and he could almost see the yellow roses disintegrating with every kiss and nibble. _You can't have her._

Sae's eyes were closed and her head was thrown back, her breathing ragged and her skin flush. She looked younger, some of the lines smoothed from her face. He wondered, sometimes, why he was the one allowed to see her like this, to make her feel like this. "Stop," she whispered, but without much conviction. "You were supposed to zip me up."

He pulled back, and with the greatest reluctance, did as she asked. He opened the jewelry box and handed her the diamond and pearl earrings. It was only then that he noticed a second box, somewhat larger, but the wrong shape to be the necklace. "What's this?"

Her hands shook almost imperceptibly as she put on her earrings. "It's for you, actually. A gift." She breathed in. "I was going to give it to you after we got back from the casino in one piece, but I suppose now is as good a time as any."

He opened it. It was a pocket watch. No, _the_ pocket watch. Sitting there on black felt. "You got me the watch," he said stupidly as if it would turn into a unicorn or something if he didn't say it out loud. A dozen different emotions flooded him, fighting for dominance like kids fighting over an action figure. Shock. She had remembered that he wanted a watch in the first place. Anger. Didn't she know that he was going to buy it for himself someday? Just because he was broke right now—helping her—didn't mean things weren't going to turn around soon. She knew how he felt about being some toy for her. Pleasure. He really did want that watch. "I don't know what to say, "he whispered. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to? I... friends give each other presents. Even friends who...do what we do." She ran her fingers through her hair. "This was going better in my head."

The anger receded slightly. "It's just a bit much."

She twirled the pendant between her fingers. "And how much did this cost? I'm thinking the spy camera cost more than the engraving I had done."

He looked down. _Akira Kurusu, Author._ "I've never seen someone's eyes light up the way yours did when you talked about the book," she continued. "Not even Makoto when she talked about the Thieves. I wanted you to remember what you were. She put her hand on his arm. "With or without Mementos, I think you must have magic. To look at me and see what you do. You matter, not the Phantom. You matter immensely. And I want you to remember that when your voices get too loud or when I'm not there or...please, won't you say something?"

Akira's vision wavered, and a lump filled his throat. Other women looked at him the way Sae did; he knew he was good-looking. The people who knew were grateful for everything he had done against Yaldabaoth. He knew his friends loved him. But no one else had ever told him he might matter as a writer—that he had been right to forsake the security of a normal job and create his own worlds instead of exploring others. And Sae Niijima—the woman who had scratched and clawed to climb her way up the ladder only to throw it all away—was the one who saw.

He spun her around and kissed her, hard and closed-mouthed. There were tears on his cheeks, and he felt as if they had stepped into a great void. Fling. Affair. Friend. Those were the words they used. And people who had flings might have hot sex. Friends gave each other gifts. But this? He didn't know what to call it? It wasn't the quiet, friendly, cute thing Ryuji and Ann had where he just wanted to scream at them to get married already. It wasn't like what he had had with Hifumi, all blushing and dates at the Ferris wheel. This was too intense, too fast. Like waking up from a coma and discovering you were starving.

This was...a whirlwind romance. "I—"

"Guys, schedule!" Morgana hissed and glared at them. "Futaba will be expecting you any minute. Have you even checked your equipment yet? Get your hormones under control already."

Sae stepped back. "Even I know when he's angry. We should finish getting dressed."

"You know," Akira said as he shrugged into his jacket under Morgana's watchful eye. "I think I suck at having flings."

"And water is wet. The only thing that surprises me is that one of you hasn't dropped to one knee yet." Morgana smiled. "You should ask her out. For after you get back to Tokyo. I suggest dinner and a movie."

"I don't know."

"You don't know? You're more romantic than I am and you don't know?

"She wants something temporary. I agreed to that." And honestly? He wasn't sure what he wanted. Suppose they did start dating. That wouldn't stop the women harassing him. It would probably get worse once they knew he was "taken." There would be gossip, whispers that she had had an inappropriate relationship with him five years ago. His mother would wonder if dating someone who made more than he did was his backup plan if writing didn't work out. It would become the kind of relationship that had to work out, just because of all the extra crap they'd have to go through. And in his novel, they would. But then if he had been writing a story about a young shogi player and the unjustly imprisoned thief, they would have worked out. Whirlwind romances ended one of two ways: a fairy tale marriage or someone dying. He thought he could bear losing the romance as long as they could stay friends, but them yelling at each other like his parents was too much "I don't want to pressure her."

 _But still, nothing else has made me this happy._ For as long as she wanted him, he would hold on. He put the watch in his front pocket. Every good knight needed to carry his lady's favor into battle.

When he made it back into the common room, Sae was sitting at the table, pale and fidgety. "Almost time." She smiled. "I'm glad you're not wearing your glasses. I might have had to hit something."

Work. Right. Okaba the murderous crime boss who could kill him as surely as any Shadow. "Well, I want to stand out. The young idiot who keeps making bad bet after bad bet trying to cover his losses. I'm thinking I'll be playing mostly craps. Easy to lose a lot fast."

"And roulette, if you can stand it." She flinched. "When we were first working the Okaba case, there were rumors he planted people who could control the ball with an infrared device. And use the Martingale system. More people went bankrupt by trying to double their money than anything else combined."

He stared at her. "I had no idea you knew this much about gambling."

"Knee deep in rigged games for a year. Where do you think that Palace came from?" she whispered. "We shouldn't keep Futaba waiting."

Akira tapped his cuff links "Oracle, are you receiving?"

"Affirmative." Futaba laughed. "Just like the old days, eh Joker?"

It was. It really was. The really old days, back before they understood what they had gotten themselves into and fighting for justice was actually fun. He looked over at Sae. "New team member, though."

"The paragon of law and order has finally graduated to fleecing crime bosses." Futaba's voice turned serious. "So what's her code name?"

"Code name? Surely there's no need for that anymore." Sae's face turned red.

"Actually, probably an even bigger one. Never know who could be listening in, and Makoto will kill me if you get disbarred over this." Silence, and then another laugh. "How about 'Empress?' Since Makoto is Queen and you're older?"

Akira and Sae stared at each other, and Sae's blush deepened. "I don't think that's a very good idea. She was the closest thing you had to a second-in-command. And I'm not really a thief anyway."

"But it'll be so much fun to tease her!"

"I think it suits you," Akira said. He gave his voice the low, slightly growly sound she liked and thought he saw her shiver. _Please, see what I see._

Sae crossed her arms. "Fine. I swear you two are worse than children."

Akira cleared his throat. "Now that that's settled, is everyone clear on the plan? I'll be playing the idiot who is down on his luck and convinced his only salvation is craps and roulette. Thanks to some truly bad prop bets and the odds being more than usually skewed in the house's favor, I lose every last yen. Then I lose my credit line." He nodded to Sae. "Meanwhile, my increasingly panicked older sister is trying to get me to stop, without success. When we realize that I've lost absolutely everything, she breaks down and runs off to Okaba to beg for a loan. All caught on video to be delivered to Iori. Oracle provides information and assistance as needed."

"Got it."

"Older sister trying to calm down someone from a crazy plan?" Sae managed to smile. "I think I can handle that."

"Good. This may not be a Palace, but we're still Phantom Thieves and Okaba is just as bad as anyone who's heart we stole. We're not only going to save Hachiro Sato, we're going to save everyone Okaba is exploiting. Futaba, I need to go over a few last minute details with Sae. I'll be back on the channel once we're inside." He tapped his cuff link. "First I pretend to be Makoto's boyfriend, and now I'm your younger brother. Sojiro always said I got things exactly backwards." He sobered and took her into his arms. "Keep safe tonight. And not just from Okaba."

"Likewise." She buried her nose in his neck. "But if we win this, maybe we'll both be set free. And you always win." She planted a little kiss on his neck that made electricity jolt through him and tore a groan from his throat. "Because I won't be able to do that for a while. And once you do win, we are going to have a proper Phantom Thief celebration."

The warehouse that held the gambling den and brothel was a cube of metal and plaster. A faded sign announcing it was in fact a warehouse seemed to be the only concession Okaba had made to secrecy. Men in dark suits with high collars loitered near the door, their prosthetic pinkies obvious. Akira took a deep breath and prepare to become someone else. Fidgety, with a little chip on his shoulder. Dressing better than what he could afford in a desperate attempt to belong. Willing to back the longest of long shots because admitting he had lost was worse. Willing to humiliate the last person who loved him. Beside him, Sae looked tired and annoyed and frightened despite her wonderful clothing. Shoulders hunched, brow furrowed. Desperately wanting her little brother to do the right thing and terrified of where she was going, but even more afraid of leaving him alone. At least, he hoped she was just getting into character.

He showed the pass, the doorman nodded, and they swept into another world.

Before Mementos, Akira had only seen casinos in movies and video games. This was what he thought Macau or Las Vegas must have been like. Felt-covered tables of all sizes and colors spread out before him. Lights flashed and beeped. Dealers in waistcoats and ties flipped cards while waitresses in short skirts brought drinks. There was even a row of slot machines in the back. People stood entranced as dice and cards fell around them.

Sae tensed beside him and Akira could read her thoughts as clearly as if she had spoken aloud. "The Palace didn't look like this," he whispered. "It was bigger, fancier, with chandeliers and a lot of neon." But the empty, hollow looks of the gamblers was the same. Just like in the hostess club where people had drank and talked to pretty girls, but no one seemed to be having any fun.

 _Figure that out, did you?_ The voice boomed in his head. _Men like Okaba leech all the pleasure from the world until only hollowness remains. And you want to toss him to Kirijo? Take. His. Heart._

Oh no. He'd been so worried about bringing Sae to a facsimile of her Palace that he never wondered what might happen to him. And he had done everything but call this place a Palace with a target needed his heart stolen. The gamblers subtly shifted, becoming more plastic looking, like Shadows before he ripped their mask off. What should have been the thrill of a game well-played as they waited for the ball to drop had become empty addiction.

 _And you've already seen what he does to sex. I can bring him to justice, if you'll let me._

Sae put a hand on his arm. "Remember, you are an author."

Right. He shot her a grateful smile and tapped his front pocket. He was an author. A man with a life and a future who could do good on his own terms. He flagged down a waitress and grabbed a glass of bourbon. "You worry too much, sis! Let's have some fun!" He charged toward the craps table and put a wad of bills down on the center of the table. "Fifty thousand yen on hard sixes," he shouted.

The shooter rolled an eight. That was a nice start.

He lost steadily and dramatically throughout the evening and Sae's grip on his arm was increasingly hard. By the time he was down to his last ten thousand, there were tears in her eyes. "Please, don't do this. I—we-don't have anything left."

He summoned his father's snarl. "Don't worry about it. It's not like you care what happens to me anyway. All you care about is that job of yours. At the office from dawn till dusk and what do we have to show for it?"

Sae flinched as if she had been slapped. "I gave you everything."

"Well you need to do more," he snapped. "The problem is that the table's cold. I should've seen that before now." He stormed off in the direction of the roulette table. When he was a safe distance away, he lifted his arm and whispered into the cuff links "Keep talking to the dealer. We need Okaba invested."

"Roger that." Sae's voice softened with real tenderness and grief. "Remind me to tell Makoto that I love her."

"Er, guys," Futaba cut in. "Just for fun, I patched in to security's channel. I found something that I think you'll want to hear.

"You see that girl over at the roulette table, the one in blue? Boss wants us to make sure she keeps losing. A lot."

"Of course he does. She's pretty."

Akira looked. The girl was of average height and slim, with delicate features and long hair in a hime cut. Her dress was modest and a little faded. A wildflower, someone with more traditional tastes might have called her, everything a girl was supposed to be.

 _And everything that American with an Oriental fetish would love to get his hands on. Only one reason that Okaba would want to keep her losing._

He walked up to the table and placed himself next to the girl. "Rough night?" He threw the last wad of bills on black.

"You could say that. " She gave him a weak smile and put hers down on the first line of numbers.

"Joker?" Static popped, and it was difficult to make out Futaba. "Something…wrong...comm."

"It's the infrared remote that I told you about. Send a signal on the right frequency, and you can make any number you want come up."

 _See? He's just going to enslave that girl, and you puny mortal can do anything to stop it. You going to let her be raped or worse for what? Pride?_

He was going to stop Okaba. They would turn the tapes over to Mitsuru and everything would be all right. He didn't need Mementos for that.

 _That's not going to help her now. It's not going to help any of them. Look at these people. Do you think they don't know what's going on here? They do, but they don't care, just as long as they have their fun. They didn't give a damn when Shido confessed on live TV, they don't give a damn now. When are you going to realize your precious freedom is garbage?_

The ball spun and clattered. "Thirty-two, red," the croupier called. "Thirty-two, red."He raked in both Akira and the girl's money. Akira bowed his head and put his hands on the table as if to steady himself.

"We're ruined," the girls whispered. "Ruined."

The table shifted before him and Akira lifted his head. He was no longer in the casino. Or rather, no longer in _this_ casino. He stood in Sae's Palace as it had been the night the police came for him. The dealer's mask looked as if it had been partially melted away. Demons stood where the customers had once been, giant snakes and enormous lions bound with chains. All except one. The girl of course.

The demons advanced on her. "You are a slave, just like us. We will show you. Everything beautiful and good, we will crush."

 _And you're just going to let it happen._

"Fourteen, red. Twenty-three, red."

The scene shifted to a prison. More Shadows rattled the bars of their cells. "People don't care who leads them," said Shido's voice from someone. "As long as they have a leader. As long as someone promises to take care of them."

 _It might as well be you. At least you would be benevolent. Freedom is slavery._ Akira felt something hard on his face. His own mask. All he had to do was rip it off and Satanel would be his to command. He could undo the mistake he had made five years ago. He reached...

...and his arm grazed something metal. The watch. No. He couldn't do this. He couldn't betray everything he had fought for, everything Sae believed him to be.

 _You have no choice. If you don't act, she suffers. You will just be another weakling who watches as innocents suffer and calls it principle._ The voice was like a knife. _Do you think Sae could love a weakling? A little boy who will be depending on her charity and will have nothing to show for it? At least throw the world at her feet._

No. No. "Help me." There was always another way. Wasn't there?

"Akira?"

 _No, there isn't. Mortal flesh is not enough. Love is not enough. The world needs the Phantom. Take. His. Heart._

He stepped away from the roulette table. "I need a way to win. She can't…I can't just stand by and do nothing."

"You're...—ing up."

Well, that was a sign, wasn't it? When he needed help most, he didn't have it all because of the stupid infrared—wait a moment. "If the remote is screwing with the comm, could I use the comm to screw with the remote?"

"Ris—" Futaba said. "...—pends on the model."

The girl put the last of her money down on seven.

"I'll risk it. Tell me how to get a seven."

 _Wait...do you really think this will work?_

"If it's like what Okaba used before," Sae sounded like she was about to throw up. "Frequency 107.92."

He took a deep breath and adjusted his cuff links The comm went dead.

 _What are you doing? What are you DOING?_

The ball clattered against the wood as the wheel spun round and round. The casino stilled and went silent, or maybe it was just Akira's imagination. _Clack_. _Clack_. The ball settled into place.

"Seven, red."

Akira gripped the edge of the nearest table keep from falling. He'd done it. He'd actually done it. He watched through blurred vision as the nameless girl collected her winnings. It wasn't quite as flashy as shooting a glass pane, but it would do. He just barely resisted clicking his heels and walked back over to Sae.

Sae was in low, frantic conversation with a man in a dark suit. For the briefest of moments, pure relief washed over her face before dissolved into a furious, miserable glare. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" she rasped. "What I'm going to have to do to save you?"

 _If I'm a sap, she's a ham. I think we both may have missed our callings on the stage._ Akira threw up his hands. "Well maybe if you'd supported me in the first place, we wouldn't be here."

"Mr. Okaba believes an arrangement can be made. He's asked to speak to your sister. Alone."

Alone into the lion's den, just as they had planned. He wished suddenly, desperately for his knife. He wondered if this was how she had felt when they had entered Shido's Palace: knowing that everything hinged on this one moment but that you had to leave success or failure to someone else. This might be the last time you saw them alive, and there was nothing you could do.

"Good luck, my Empress," he whispered, but his voice was swallowed up by the din of the casino.

* * *

Sae had spent a year of her life dreaming of entering Shuji Okaba's office. Of course, in those dreams, she had been flanked by police officers, not his guards and Okaba watched her with terror in his eyes instead of sneering at her from behind a desk. The guards shoved her forward none too gently and slammed the door behind them.

Sae bowed. "Thank you, Mr. Ok—"

He lifted a hand. "Save it. Did you think I wouldn't recognize you? You're that prosecutor. The one who charged Shido. And I happen to know that you don't have a little brother."

So this was how she was going to die: chopped into pieces by a sociopath because he had seen her face on the news for the one good thing she had done in her entire career. Fate had a sick sense of humor.

Futaba let forth a stream of curses Sae hadn't even known that she knew. "Empress, we need to get you out of there."

"To where? And how? It's not like she can jump out a stained-glass window!" Akira's breath came out in choked gasps. "If anything happens to you..."Wait. If he knows who you are, why did he bring you into his office for a chat? There may be a way out after all. Do whatever you have to do, just keep yourself alive."

The tiniest glimmer of hope, just enough to be cruelty. Sae didn't bother to hide the tremors in her hands and voice. "I am. Or I was. I'm a defense attorney now. I have no interest in prosecuting anyone."

"I know. That's the only reason you're still breathing right now. So tell me why a lawyer from Tokyo would come all the way out here. With a young man."

"I—" He was still staring at her with that contempt. As if waiting for validation of some personal hatred. He had looked at her like that the other night when she had asked for sex. "Isn't it obvious? I can't be the first attorney with hobbies she needs to indulge out of sight. He's one of my hobbies. Or he was."

Okaba bared his teeth in a smile. "I don't believe it. The great crusader for truth and justice got herself a prettyboy! Who stuck her with his gambling debt."

"Yes, well, I found over the last few years that justice doesn't suit me."

"The bar is just going to love this. Might even throw you out."

Well, gloating beat stabbing. She sniffed. "What can I say? He was handsome. Artistic. Young. And the sex was…well, it doesn't matter now." She crossed her arms. The contempt was still there in Okaba's eyes but there was pleasure too. The no-nonsense attorney proving that she was a sniveling, lust-addled fool who really should have been married and stopped playing lawyer by now. "He just wanted my money."

Akira hissed. _Forgive me._

"And now I have your money. And then some. He ran up quite the debt."

"Don't you hand out loans for that sort of thing? At a very high interest rate, I'm sure."

"I do." His voice was light, but there was steel behind it. "You know, some of your old friends put some of my old friends in prison once upon a time. And I just lost a major investment at the roulette wheel. So I'm afraid the interest rate for you is going to be very high indeed. Twenty-six percent. Compounded daily."

Sae took a deep breath. There. He had admitted to loansharking on tape. As long as she got out of this room alive and Junpei kept his word, nothing else mattered. But she could do the math just as well as Okaba. "I'll never be able to pay that back."

"Oh, you will. On the day you retire. But until then, Niijima, I will own you. Whatever freedom or power or whatever you thought you were getting when you left SIU, that's over. I hold all the cards now." He took out a pen and surprisingly professional-looking contract. "Sign."

 _"No, you will not take the last bit of power I have away from me! I will kill you first!" A rocket launcher and sword grew from where her arms once were. No one would ever call her weak again. "Behold the true form of Leviathan!"_

"No, Sae! If Mitsuru doesn't come in time, if he gives that paper to someone, you are worse than dead. I'll find a way into Mementos. I'll—what have I done?"

 _Akira's lips traced her shoulders and down her spine. With every touch, the reflection in the mirror grew fainter. "You're sexy because I know you." No one had ever said such a thing to her before. Just now, she believed that the Shadow within wasn't all that she was._ "Where do I sign?"

She found Akira slumped against a streetlamp. His skin was ashen and his eyes were dull. His legs wobbled dangerously. "That was a stupid thing to do."

"Better than dying. Once he recognized me, it was the only way out."

"I know." He smiled at her, tight and hollow and a little crazed. "You insane, wonderful Niijima women putting everything on the line for justice. You officially do not get to say anything about the one million yen ever again."

"It's not like I'm intending on letting him collect." She smiled sadly and tapped the pendant. "Oracle, tell me you got all that?"

"Already uploaded." There was a long pause. "Wait. You're telling me that Kirijo wasn't bankrolling this? You used your own money? Joker, you idiot! You insane, noble idiot! Give me a minute."

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing your mess." Another pause. "There. Okaba liked to hide his money in the Cook Islands too. One-and-a-half million yen from his account to yours. I think you earned at least that much."

Sae opened her mouth and closed it again. Just like that, a wrong righted and a debt repaid. Akira wouldn't have to worry about forcing himself into that little box. One less thing to worry about as he battled the force that conspired to drive him mad. She looked at him, already standing straighter. "Thank you."

"That's why we're the Phantom Thieves. Bringing justice to rotten adults. Even though we are the adults now." She laughed. "Now, go get some sleep before you pass out. I've never seen you call one of us by our real names on a job. You must have been really out of it."

This time Morgana was waiting up for them. He sat on the armrest of the couch, his tail swishing back and forth. He jumped down and rubbed Akira against the leg. Akira bent to scratch as Morgana meowed in what sounded like a worried manner.

"Yeah. We got it. We're fine, promise." Akira looked at Sae. "I'll tell you all about it in a minute. Just let me help Sae out of her dress." More, less annoyed meowing. "No that's not a euphemism!"

Sae lasted until Akira closed the door behind him before her legs gave out and she tumbled into the chair. They had conned Shuji Okaba. Twice. In one night. No one at the prosecutor's office had even come close to bringing him down, and they had done it with cuff links and sheer nerve. And he was going to kill them or worse if he found out. "Is this what it was like for you?"

"Facing something a lot more powerful than you, surviving through dumb luck and doing just the right thing at the right time and wondering how on Earth you're alive right now? Welcome to the Phantom Thieves, Empress." He sobered and knelt in front of the chair. "I'm sorry I panicked on the comm. All I could see was Kaneshiro. I had nightmares about what he would do if I failed."

Sae had a pretty good idea of what those nightmares were like. She guided his head to her lap and stroked his hair. "I'm here. Safe. You have to stay safe, too."

"I will. The watch helped tonight. Really pissed off whoever is in my head . You keep doing things like you did tonight, and I'm going to start owing you."

 _I could give you everything, and it still wouldn't begin to be what you deserve._ "If it gives that thing hell, then I consider it the best gift I ever gave. Besides, every good thief needs a magic trinket to protect him." She looked at the ceiling, where she imagined the god who plagued Akira lurked. _You will not take him. I am tired of losing people I love. I may not have powers, but that doesn't mean I can't fight._ She bent to kiss his temple. "You aren't a toy or a hobby. I have very few good thing's in my life. This is one. So you have to win."

"So do you." The visible half of his face curved into a sad smile. "I guess there's nothing to do but hope that this is a fairy tale after all."

Her phone chimed. "I should probably get that." Sae managed to stand and shuffle to the dresser. The text message was brief.

 _O taken care of. S will see you on Sunday. -J_

"It's over," she whispered. "We won." The mortals had taken on the darkness and won. As close as he might have come, Akira hadn't gone mad. She had stayed herself. Okaba was either dead or gone. And in a few short days, she would have her proof and Hachiro Sato would go free. "We won."

Akira came up behind her and together they stared back at her warm, brown human eyes.

* * *

 _"And that's another wager you've lost. And not only has my Wild Card failed to go mad, he's found love. I should thank you. Wait. Why are you smiling?"_

 _"Because the game isn't over. I was delighted when they discovered their infatuation, even if it makes me want to vomit. You of all entities should know that humans are never more vulnerable to temptation than when they have something to lose. I think it's time to get a little more direct."_


	8. Chapter 8

Sunlight streamed through the window when Sae woke Saturday morning. She frowned. Her days as both a prosecutor and an attorney had started long before the official time of nine a.m., but she was getting in the habit of sleeping later and better lately. The only sounds were the distant chirping of birds and Akira's even breathing. Sae propped herself on one elbow to watch him. He still looked terribly young, but also handsome. His face was smooth and unlined, and there was a color in his cheeks that she hadn't seen while they were planning the Okaba heist. She traced his shoulders and chest with one finger tip. The morning light softened his scars and, for the moment, she could simply enjoy the softness of his skin and the dormant strength of his muscles.

He stirred, and his eyes blinked open. For the briefest of moments, surprise flitted across his face, followed by a slow smile. "Morning."

Something twisted in Sae's chest. He always seemed so shocked and delighted to find her in bed every morning. As if she hadn't promised to stay. As if he wasn't dashing and charming and kind and wouldn't have women lining up around the block if he so much as snapped his fingers. As if he thought he was lucky to have her. "Good morning." She kissed him. _I wish I could keep you with me until one day you started expecting me here. I like being here._ "Everything quiet?"

"Yours is the only voice I'm hearing right now. Same for you?"

"Yes." She brushed his hair from his eyes. So this was what it was like, she thought. To have someone and not be going crazy at the same time. She had almost forgotten the feeling. Contentment. "I hardly know what to do with myself. What do Phantom Thieves do with themselves after heists?"

"Well, I still owe you a real celebration. And it's going to be our last full day in Port Island." A shadow passed across his face. "If these journals are everything they're supposed to be, do we still have to go to Inaba. Or is this it?" _Is this over_? hung as heavy in the air as if he had spoken it.

"I don't know." Another knife to her heart. They could bring down a yakuza boss and literally conquer their demons, but the clock ticked on on the same. It seemed horribly, bitterly unfair. "If I think it's enough evidence to push for Sato's release, I'll head back to Tokyo and file a motion immediately." He would be reunited with the remnants of his family and she would add another act of justice on the scale against all the corruption and cruelty she had allowed. And back to a spacious apartment with a good view and a lonely bed. What had she gotten herself into, wanting more than she could have? "But that's not today. You do still owe me that celebration, and I always collect my debts."

He forced a smile. "You have something in mind?"

"Not as such. Someplace terribly expensive, though. I did not buy that dress only to wear it once." It would be fun to see the glint in his eyes and know that she was the cause. She would take him somewhere she could show him off a little, instead of lying that she was only a lonely woman who had found a toy. See him blush under a torrent of compliments instead of hissing at an act.

"I can deal with that." He kissed her again, light and quick. Sae gasped, and in a few moments he had rolled her over and was peppering her with kisses that made the future seem unreal. "Because. You. Have. Great. Ideas."

"Do I?" she breathed.

"The—"

Her phone rang on the nightstand, and they both swore. "It's Makoto."

"Sis?" She sounded out of breath and a little panicked." Are you okay?"

 _Aside from you having the worst timing in the world?_ "I'm fine. I just woke up."

"Oh. Have you heard the news? The police have uncovered some kind of human trafficking ring in Port Island. The phones have been ringing off the hook here demanding that we 'do something.' And the guy responsible—Shuji Okaba?—he killed himself."

Sae closed her eyes. A better woman would have managed some pity for him or at least outrage that he had escaped the law permanently. She can only be grateful. Never again would that man prey upon the desperate. And neither she nor Makoto would have to worry about that contract. Unorthodox justice, justice all the same. "I see."

"I did some digging. He was the case you were working before Dad died. And he just happens to be exposed while you two are here. That wasn't a coincidence, was it?"

Sae froze. She had prepared eventualities and cover stories for almost everything except Makoto finding out what she had done. She looked over at Akira, but he had the same deer in the headlights expression that she must have had.

"What did you _do?_ "

No point in lying now. She sighed. "During my investigation here, a third party wanted evidence of Okaba's operations in exchange for information about Personas. Akira and I acquired that evidence. We're both perfectly safe. You don't have to worry about anything."

But Makoto didn't seem to hear her. "Did Akira put you up to this? Go wake him up so I can kill him!"

"I'm going to go get dressed," he whispered. "As soon as she's finished yelling at you it'll be my turn, and I'd like to die with some dignity." The bed shifted as he scurried towards his own room and left her to face the music alone. Bastard.

"We really are safe," Sae repeated. "And I asked to be included. We infiltrated his casino, Akira lost a lot of money that Futaba stole back for us, and I wore a wire and got him to admit to his loansharking on tape. We even rigged a roulette game to prevent another girl from going into debt."

"Casino? Roulette? Are you crazy?" Makoto's voice rose higher and higher with every word. "And you wore a wire? Don't you remember what happened to me when I confronted Kan—oh God." When she spoke again, it was with the small voice that always managed to make Sae feel even smaller. "Just because I charged off to confront a crime lord doesn't mean you have to."

"It was nice to do some real undercover work. And fight for justice. To not feel so useless."

"Oh, Sis." Sae could almost see the tears in Makoto's eyes. "I forgive you. I love you. I don't want you risking your neck because you think you have something to prove."

 _No, I do. I will always owe you for what I did._ "As opposed to because it had to be done?" In more ways than one, but Makoto didn't need to know about the return of the thing that had almost killed her. Leviathan would never threaten her again. "I might be able to come home soon. We're picking up the proof tomorrow."

"And then you are going to do something fun and not life-threatening if I have to frog-march you to the baths or bar myself." She paused to steady her voice. "I just want to see you happy. Port Island's pretty big, lots of nightlife. You could find a date or something."

As if on cue, Akira reappeared in the doorway wearing his usual polo shirt and slacks, but otherwise looking wonderfully rumpled. Sae colored. What would her little sister say if she knew Sae had already found more than a date? A smile played at her lips. Maybe it was time to remind her little sister not to meddle and begin to pay Akira back for some of the things he'd been forced to overhear. "Be careful what you wish for. I have been sampling the nightlife. And I did find a date."

"You—I—I was kidding! What's he like?"

Sae looked at Akira's half-opened mouth and wide eyes. "He's...an actor. Terribly handsome, naturally Could charm you out of your last yen and make you smile about it. But smart, too, and kind. He helped me prepare for a lot of the undercover work." She thought of the ping-pong game. "Athletic, fiercely competitive."

"Sounds pretty special."

"He is," Sae said gently and watched as Akira blushed, with a half-smile that held none of his earlier cockiness. "I really like him." _This is the truth. This is what I want you to remember when you think back on this._

"Any chance you could drag him back to Tokyo so I can meet him? I want to see this guy who met your standards."

Oh, that had backfired spectacularly. And she had never been good at thinking fast when Makoto was involved. "I—Port Island is very far away. He has his own life. And I don't think he would like mine so much when I have to trade linen sheets and room service for getting up before dawn and fast food." Akira's expression was unreadable.

"You never know. Maybe someday."

"Maybe." Please, let's talk about something else. Anything else. "How are things on your end? You said that you were getting a lot of calls about the Okaba case?"

"Um, yeah. Ms. Takagi thinks this could be a chance to pass some anti-trafficking legislation with real teeth. We might even be about to sign on to the TIP Protocol." There was electricity in Makoto's voice as she discussed her legislative hopes, and Sae again marveled at how some things at least had turned out so spectacularly right.

Akira was still watching her with that blank look when she hung up. It would have been easier if he were outraged or sad or amused. At least then she would have known how to begin. For the first time since she had asked him to kiss her, Akira made Sae feel vulnerable. "My romantic gestures always blow up in my face," she tried.

He closed the distance between them and sat on the edge of the bed. This close, she could tell his expression wasn't blank. It was resigned. "It was what we agreed." His voice was flat.

"I thought you would be more upset." And maybe there was a part of her that wanted him to be. He was the writer who found a way for a thief and an for us to be together. He showered her with such romantic, ridiculous praise. He should have been seizing her hand and declaring that love would conquer all. "More pushy."

"Do you want me to be?" There was something like hope in his voice, carefully guarded but there all the same.

There it was, the billion-yen question. What did she want, now that they had not so much moved beyond friends with benefits as sailed beyond it in a rocketship? She closed her eyes again. The image was sharp and clear. She had had to bring work home with her again, a pile of papers in her lap and a pen in her hand as she revised the draft of her opening statement. Akira sat at the table, laptop open and firing away at his own revisions. He caught her gaze. "I want to have everything," she said and hated her voice for wavering. "No one else ever made me feel like this, and I don't mean the sex. But I love being a lawyer, and so much of that is deals over dinner. Reputation."

"And a wet-behind-the-ears freelancer who you once threatened with the death penalty is sort of the definition of a reputation killer." His voice was soft. "Giving up everything for a guy ends with throwing furniture, a half dozen affairs and blaming each other when the kid gets put on probation. Believe me, I get it."

Damn it, why did this have to be the one thing he was so practical about? "We're a thief and a lawyer. Breaking rules is what we do. We should be able to figure something out!"

He blinked. "You mean, if there was a way to bring the crap we'd get in Tokyo down to a manageable level, you would want to keep dating? Normal dating? Not 'a Shadow and who knows what else are trying to drive us crazy' dating?" A tremor worked it's way through him. "You would want me to...to stay?.

Her fist clenched. Sae didn't know if it was Shido, Kamoshida, or his parents that made Akira doubt, but she wanted to strangle them. "I'm afraid I'm a little out of practice when it comes to normal, but yes." She swallowed and stroked the line of his cheek and felt the barest hint of stubble under her fingers. "I meant what I told Makoto."

He caught her fingers in his and pressed a kiss to her palm. He was shaking. "So I have anywhere from a day to a couple of weeks to do I don't even know what yet and then we get to go out for coffee like normal people?"

When he put it that way, it did sound ridiculous. Sae shrank back. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" There was fire in his eyes and his movements were fluid as he stood. No, she hadn't forgotten who she was talking to. She had forgotten how much the demon had weighed him down. Akira unbound was pure lightning that could take your breath away. "I'd love a challenge." He laughed and offered her his hand. "Come on. We'll never figure out something just lying here."

They entered the common room fifteen minutes later to face Morgana's glare. "Sorry we're late," Akira said, sounding not sorry at all. "You were right, about everything. I owe you some tamagoyaki." He put an arm around Sae. "Were going to have to figure out a way for you guys to communicate. Maybe charades?" And almost despite herself, Sae dared to believe this could work.

That was when she noticed the engraved invitation sitting on a small silver tray on a corner of the table. It was addressed to both of them. Akira shrugged and Sae picked it up. "You are cordially invited to a benefit at Kirijo Tower. All proceeds will benefit those rescued from Shuji Okaba. July 19, 10:30 PM. Black tie recommended." She put the paper down. "What the hell?"

"That's tonight. Mitsuru works fast." He frowned. "Do you think it could be a trap? She seems more like the type to sue you into oblivion than knife you in an alley, but who knows?"

"And don't forget what she just did to Okaba. But there are easier ways to kill us. My guess is that she wants to make a last-ditch effort to convince us to keep our mouths shut." Her fingers tightened on the paper. "It's not an invitation to be turned down. The Kirijo name doesn't carry the weight it used to, but saying no to one of the parties still draws unwanted attention. Especially when it's for charity. She has a free pass to try to talk us down until our ears bleed."

"Then she's about to find out that she's underestimated us. We toppled a tyrant. A benefit should be no problem."

"Don't underestimate her. Words can draw blood just as easily in this world." But at least she had weapons in this world. She was through being steamrolled. Especially now that she had something personal to fight for too. She drew Akira close. "I wanted to take you somewhere nice tonight. Looks like the destination has been chosen for us."

Outside, a black butterfly sailed lazily past.

* * *

If this gala was merely an excuse to convince them to give up, Mitsuru had spared no expense in hiding that. The meeting room on the twelfth floor had been transformed into a ballroom with soft, ambient light and a string quartet playing in the corner. Hundreds had arrived to condemn the horror Okaba had unleashed, all dressed in their best and with just the right amount of rage and sympathy in their eyes.

"Deep breaths," she reminded Akira. His smile had never wavered as they mingled, but he held his champagne glass too tightly, and his gaze darted around the room whenever he thought someone wasn't looking, as if he were searching for potential assassins. Which, despite what Sae had said about there being easier ways to kill them, probably wasn't that bad of an idea.

"Right." He inhaled. "Normally when I go to these things, my job is to stand around and look intimidating in case guys get any ideas about Haru or Makoto. I will never understand people who consider this fun."

"It's not so much fun as part of the job. Being a prosecutor or an attorney is half what you do in the office or the court room. The other half is here." Quietly working out an agreement to charge a suspect with manslaughter instead of murder when plea bargains didn't officially exist. Knowing that the deputy director of the arson division liked merlot so he would let you see a report the police had officially lost. "Always makes me feel like a bear riding a unicycle."

"But it's part of your world and you learned to survive." He took another deep breath and relaxed his grip. "And if this is going to work, it'll be part of my world too. Let's go mingle some more."

Sae trailed behind him, dumbstruck.

Mitsuru swept towards them in a red dress that looked like a cost more than Sae made in a year. Her smile was polite as she clutched the arm of a silver-haired man who looked even more uncomfortable than Akira. "Mr. Kurusu, Ms. Niijima, thank you for coming tonight. Junpei told me that this is a cause very dear to you."

So she knew exactly how Junpei had gotten the information. "Okaba was a thorn in my side when I first joined the prosecutor's office. I'm thrilled someone brought him to justice."

"We all are." Real fury burned in her eyes as her voice dropped to a whisper. "Thank you for exposing that bastard. I only wish I could have executed him myself." Then back to the smooth tone. "Would you two mind joining Akihiko and myself on the balcony? We need to talk and one of my other guests is asking to meet you."

Sae and Akira looked at each other. Akira smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Did you hear that? We have a fan." But as they marched to the terrace, Sae noticed him drain the rest of his glass.

The balcony was the size of her living room. The full moon bathed the stone and metal in a silvery light that would have been romantic under other circumstances. A half-dozen couples talked in low voices. Mitsuru led them to one couple at the far corner of the railing, well away from anyone else. Sae recognized both of them. One was Professor King, wearing a suit slightly too large for him and blinking in disbelief at the wealth and beauty surrounding him.

The second... _Oh, you are clever Mitsuru._ "Kinoka."

The woman before was shorter than Sae, with delicate features that suggested grace and elegance. She wore a silvery gown that seemed to glow of its own accord, as if it were trapping the light. She smiled an easy smile. Some people would have called it stupid, but Sae knew better. Ai Kinoka had been baiting people into underestimating her since law school. "Niijima? Ms. Kirijo told me that you were in Port Island. What are you doing all the way out here? Don't you have a case to prepare?"

"I could say the same thing about you." Sae looked around at Professor King and Akira's confused stares. "Forgive my manners. Akira, this is Ai Kinoka. We went to law school together and joined the prosecutor's office. She's handling the Sato case, which is the important part tonight, I expect. Kinoka, this is Akira Kurusu."

They bowerd to each other. "So you're the infamous Akira Kurusu." Kinoka's eyes gleamed like amber. "You're even more handsome than in your photographs."

Akira turned red. "I...thank you."

Sae ground her teeth. "He's not a judge or an investigator. You don't need to flirt with him to throw him off guard."

"I like to keep in practice. And it's not every day that you meet the infamous Phantom Thief of Hearts. I suppose I should thank you. Between half of Special Investigations being implicated in Shido's conspiracy and Niijima leaving, you created a number of vacancies. A young prosecutor can rise very high very quickly. All she needs is one spectacular case to seal the deal."

"But does it have to be this case?" Mitsuru asked. "Everything I've read suggests Mr. Sato was truly distraught when he was arrested. No history of violence. Isn't it possible that he was mentally ill at the time?"

"If I thought that, I wouldn't be seeking the death penalty. Our psychiatrists examined him. His behavior isn't consistent with any diagnosable disorder." Her lips curved upward. "Don't tell me you invited me here to negotiate a deal?"

Sae shrugged. "This is your plan, then, Kirijo? Get the charges against Sato dropped?"

"Her plan and not yours? Interesting. What interest do the Kirijos have in an ordinary murder case?"

Professor King cleared his throat. "Unless it isn't so ordinary? Your company has come up a lot in my research. And Mr. Sato does seem quite similar to those who suffered a—what's the phrase?—mental breakdown. And there are rumors that those weren't quite natural. Stolen and corrupted hearts, or something like that."

"Of course it's an ordinary case," Mitsuru said a little too quickly. "But there are security issues in play that would make it best that this situation be wrapped up quickly and quietly."

Kinoka's eyes narrowed. "What sort of security issues?"

"I'm not at liberty to disclose them."

"Of course you aren't." She laughed, high and tinkling. "And since I've heard nothing from my superiors beyond them wanting a child murderer's head on a pike, you'll excuse me if I proceed to give him his just desserts." Her gaze flickered. "Can I speak with you in private, Niijima? It's been ages since we caught up."

 _She wants something._ Akira realized it too because he tensed as if he were ready to pounce. "I'll be okay," she murmured. "It will be a pleasure, Kinoka."

Kinoka's gaze flickered between them but she led Sae away without a word until they were in a relatively quiet part of the balcony. She stood perfectly straight and her voice was no longer light or smooth. "Have I mentioned how much I absolutely hate it when rich people think they get to decide what's just and what isn't? No offense, but your client is a monster."

"Someone who would murder there wife and child is indeed a monster."

"Nicely noncommittal. You don't think he's responsible for his actions? Believe it or not, I did consider the mental shutdown angle, without all the mystical mumbo-jumbo, of course."

"I'm not going to discuss my strategy until we're back in Tokyo." Neither Kinoka or anyone else would believe her until she got her hands on the proof tomorrow. She hadn't believed it herself until those thousands of small details had added up. "But no, I didn't leave Special Investigations to defend people I thought were monsters."

"And you just happened to come to Port Island with the man at the center of the Phantom Thief case? You think that your client has been the victim of another Akechi and you're looking to prove it. Do I have that about right? Just nod your head so you can't be accused of breaking privilege."

Sae swore under her breath. Even after all these years, she could forget that Kinoka was only pretending to be a flirty idiot. "That isn't quite true."

"But it's close enough." She leaned over the railing. "It's going to be a circus when this case finally goes to trial. And there's nothing more than I love than a good media circus."

"Because you always look so good in front of the camera."

"You know, if you had learned to smile and nod at the right people, you could have been running Special Investigations by now. You're almost as smart as I am. Almost. You know that the rumor is that the position is going to be open again next year. Things being how they are, the new director could be anyone."

"You, if you win this case. The woman who brought a horrific criminal to justice would be the perfect person to take on corruption." Sae clenched her fist. The Palace had only made literal what had always been true in the prosecutor's office: the cases were a game, winners and losers were rewarded, and guilt or innocence had only a tangential relationship with success.

"And why not me? Quite frankly, I think I deserve it, if only for putting up with a decade of Hata grabbing my ass."She scowled. "You know, I'm glad it's you. The media is going to be all over us like flies on honey. For a brief, shining moment, the two most famous attorneys in Japan will be women. Of course, to the victor will go the spoils, but still it will be good for girls to see that. Might have a few more of them in the office in a few years. And a female Director will be even better."

"Don't start planning the future of Japanese feminism until you actually win."

Kinoka laughed. "I'm going to. There's no Akechi this time, Niijima. You got played. The knife was in his hand. You would be the greatest defense attorney alive if you pull off an acquittal now. And we both know which of us was first in class in Criminal Procedure. Tell Kirijo that unless she can give me an actual reason for me to throw away my shot, there's no deal."

"Trust me, this was all her doing. Very soon, Akira and I will complete our investigation." And a small, petty part of her could acknowledge that it would be nice to knock that smug grin off Kinoka's face."

"'Akira?'" Kinoka's eyebrows went up. "I was told he was friends with your sister, but I had no idea that the two of you were that close."

 _Crap._ For one horrible second, Sae's brain went completely blank. She wanted Akira, wanted to parade him publicly in Tokyo, wanted to tell the world she was a happily attached lawyer, but not like this. Not with Kinoka's eyes widening and her mouth forming an 'o.' "I—"

"I don't believe this," Kinoka whispered. "The way you looked at him when you left, it was just the same as that guy from second-year Contracts." Her laughter was nervous and a little unhinged. "And the Phantom Thief case was the one that made you leave. Please, tell me you weren't sleeping with the suspect. We don't need another scandal."

"You know me better than that, Kinoka" There. That was how things were going to be from now on: baseless speculation from people who should've known better. What had she been thinking? "I never slept with anyone I was investigating. Especially not a minor."

"And Kurusu hasn't been a minor for years. Well, a-year-and-a-half. Don't worry, I'll keep my mouth shut. I don't want anything tarnishing my victory." Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Is that why you took such a longshot case? Make a name for yourself so nobody would dare say a word?"

"What?"

"Oh, come on. You'd be the defense attorney who pulled off a miracle. You could do anything short of getting disbarred and it wouldn't change anything. Personally, I would have waited until I had actually won before I decided I wanted him, but you always did like to gamble."

Sae shivered. Kinoka was right. Once she won the Sato case, she would be more than an attorney who had won a rare victory in open court. She would be a miracle worker, a legend. And legends had always been able to do as they pleased. "I have to go."

Akira was waiting for her just inside, clutching his champagne glass in a death grip. "Everything okay?"

"Fine. I owe Kinoka a drink when this is over." Pure giddy possibility washed over her and she laughed. "Have dinner with me. Or no, wait. Dinner's too much pressure. Coffee?"

"What?"

"I mean, if you still want to. I won't be able to give you the luxury suites or anything, and I'm still a workaholic." She told him what Kinoka had said. "All we have to to do is win the case, and we could already have the smoking gun."

He smiled that wonderful smile that was like lightning. "Stealing a happy ending. I told you I was the best thief in the business."

And then the lights went out.

Akira swore. "Don't they have a backup generator or something? Hold on, there's an emergency light on my phone. Which isn't working."

The giddy relief was gone in an instant. Fear filled her. Think. She have to think. Mementos and the Dark Hour were gone. There was a perfectly rational explanation for all this. A sick prank, probably. Only… "Why is no one else saying anything?"

Heels clattered on the floor as a yellow glow filled the room. Sae gasped. The room was filled with coffins where people had been standing a few minutes earlier. "Not identical to what it was before, but I think he did an admirable job," said a familiar voice.

No. No! She had won. She had _won_!

Leviathan smiled. "You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"


	9. Chapter 9

Sae had lost track of the number of times she had thought she was going to die. A car running a traffic light and nearly crushing her, a defendant swearing revenge after she put them away. Those terrible moments in Okaba's office. Risk of life and limb was something you accepted as either a prosecutor or a defense attorney. She didn't fear death now. The Shadow couldn't kill her without destroying itself. But watching the streets run with blood while the rest of the world moved on uncaring had taught her that there were things worse than death. Things she couldn't fight. She swallowed a whimper.

Leviathan grabbed a half-filled champagne glass. "Stop staring. Don't you remember Mom saying your face would freeze like that? You can't possibly believe that a little thing like shutting down one flesh peddler would convince me to abandon you?" Her lips twisted into a sneer as she gestured to Akira. "The boy threw a fireball at me, and I'm still here. Because I am so much stronger than either of you."

"I remember." There was no trace of fear in Akira's voice, but the color had drained from his face, and he seized Sae's fingers in a death grip. "I remember you being a self-righteous little brat who threw temper tantrums when she lost. Why are you here? You promised you were going to be good and fight for justice."

Sae's mind unfroze. Leviathan has said someon had done an admirable job of re-creating something. The Dark Hour? Which would imply a time limit. If she could run out the clock, maybe Leviathan would vanish again of her own accord. "I'd like to know that myself. Because I have tried to fight for justice. Makoto doesn't hate me." She ran a thumb over Akira's hand. "I'm happier than I've ever been. So why am I being tormented now? Why is Akira having those hallucinations?"

"Tormenting you? I told you before. I'm trying to save you. This happiness is transitory. All happiness is." Real pain flashed in her eyes. "All it takes is one thug with a knife having too much to drink and your life is shattered into pieces. You just barely put yourself back together when Dad died. You think you can survive your heart being broken a second time? Power and pleasure are the only things that matter."

Akira relaxed. "Is that it? You're afraid of being hurt?" He looked at Sae. "I'm not going to break your heart."

"Of course you are. Parents divorced because your dad slept with anything in a skirt and your mom couldn't take it anymore. They still can't stand to be in the same room for more than ten minutes. The white knight overcompensation is charming, but we all know that the best predictor of success in a relationship is your parents. You don't know how to be in a relationship when it isn't grand gestures."

Akira flinched as if he had been struck, and a queasy feeling slathered over Sae's fear. She had made it her business to know everything about the delinquent drawing her sister into his world, and it had been easy enough to get the file. His father hadn't even bothered to hide his contempt for either mother or son by the end. Sojiro was still half-pining over a dead woman. No good models for a stable relationship. "I like beating the odds," he said.

"It's why you never pushed. Not chivalry. I knew." Her gaze returned to Sae. "And you knew. You are a miserable, prickly workaholic who will never change. You love his little romantic speeches because you would rather hear the lie that you matter." Her voice switched to falsetto. "'Oh, my empress, let me give you adventures and an outlet for your dominatrix fantasies and let you pretend to be a hero." She snarled. "You make me sick, that both of you, lying to yourselves."

Sae went very quiet and very still. Something was wrong here. Very wrong. These were softball insults. "You aren't telling me anything I don't tell myself when you're not in my head. I know what my life was like before. I know what your salvation looks like. And you know I know. And you know that I hated when I became you."

"Bravo." She applauded. "You were right that we only have a limited amount of time. I'm sure Mitsuru and Akihiko are going to be returning from whatever hidden armory they have armed to the teeth and brandishing those Evokers of theirs. Meanwhile, the entity who was gracious enough to rouse me from your head has been getting into position."

"Entity? What entity?"

"I'm sure your precious Akira could tell you all about him. So could the human cowering in the corner. I do so hate violence. Are you sure you won't give up this madness?"

 _Right now, you're useless to me._ "I'd rather die."

Leviathan tsked. "Oh, you won't. But you'd be astonished what you can live through." She flickered and, just for a moment, Sae saw the thing she had only known from Makoto and Akira's stories and brief flashes: an armored figure with ragged gray hair peeking out of a demon-faced helm and wielding a jagged sword and battered missile launcher. That was what she really was? But just as quickly, the demon vanished. "We have always craved power, you and I. The differences is that I actually have it."

"Some power." Akira glared at her. "I mopped the floor with you last time."

"Details. And it's not as if you have a chance since you're both unarmed, and you're too afraid of my partner to summon your Persona. Oh, there's an idea!" Her eyes glowed the same way their father's had when he announced a break in a case over dinner. "I prefer games anyway. Alas, we'll have to do without the casino. Round one: 'Would You Rather?' Tell me which fate you would prefer. And be warned, not choosing will earn you the penalty."

She snapped her fingers and dark formless masses appeared on the floor, with masks in the center. Shadows. They slithered toward Sae and Akira, slowly, shifting and changing and solidifying as they moved into snake-like creatures. There was none of the fear or bravado Akira had told her the demons of Mementos possessed, not even intelligence. But they could kill just as easily. One of the snakes hissed, and the sound of rushing wind filled Sae's ears as she went sailing backwards onto the stone. A sharp, spiking pain flooded her, and her vision wavered and doubled. Akira screamed her name and there was another blast of wind before he too was sent sprawling.

"Did I say that attacking me was one of the options? You do not want to see the penalty for breaking the rules when I have my other self right here. Unless you want to explain to Makoto why she had a stroke?"

Sae breathed in and tasted blood in her mouth. Her thoughts galloped over each other as panic shattered the orderly process of her mind. _Got to get out of here. No way to fight. Was I that cruel? We're going to die here. She lied, and we're going to die here._

"Oh, be quiet. I'm a woman of my word." Leviathan stepped forward until she loomed over Sae's field of vision and hauled her roughly to her knees. Execution style. Dad had died on his knees, they'd told her. "Option one, and not my preference. My minions issue another blast of wind. It should be enough to send you over the railing and plummeting to the street. You survive, barely. A paralyzed husk who spends her remaining years in a nursing home. You'll have no choice but to remember how weak you are."

Akira spat and hauled himself into a sitting position. "What the hell is wrong with you? You were a self-righteous jackass before, not a sadist!"

"Drastic measures." She sounded almost sad. "You made her world—my world—so much bigger. You made us believe in things like love and justice. She's actually starting to believe in happy endings. That she's a hero. And I can't allow that lie to stand. I'm the real one, not this empress you cooked up. Bitter, abusive. You are in love with a lie."

Akira reached for Sae. "Don't listen to her."

"Oh, God. You actually do love her. You're besotted. I never thought—it doesn't matter." She swallowed and through the haze, Sae thought she saw Leviathan's eyes flash brown. "She must remember what she is. Option two, then, if you want to be her knight in shining armor. Save her, because she can't save herself. Summon your Persona. Those Shadows shouldn't be any trouble for the Phantom Thief Of Hearts. Of course, there will be consequences. Make your choice in three..."

Consequences. Unnamed. The perfect tool of prosecutor looking to make a deal that wasn't in the suspect's interest. "Let me fall. I told you, I'm not worth it. I choose option one." It would be all right. Maybe a grand sacrifice would finally even the score.

"I wasn't asking you. You will never be anything more than someone who needs saving in this world. Two..."

Akira squared his shoulders. "What kind of consequences?"

"Fighting for your lives, for one thing. We have to get you back in practice."

She and Akira looked at each other. His mouth was bleeding the same as hers, but his eyes were hard. She had seen that before, on Christmas Eve, and she knew. It wasn't even about love, really. Joker would always choose to risk himself rather than someone else. Romantic fool. "You know my answer."

Maybe that was why she loved him, too.

Blue flame engulfed them both, so bright that Sae had to shield her eyes. When she could see again, it wasn't quite Akira staring back at her. The white mask obscured his eyes as much as the glasses ever did. His coat whipped in the wind and the brass buttons of his shirt shone even in the haze. The blood on his lip was gone, and the lower half of his face was set. A man who could kill with a thought, and would, if he had to.

He clutched the mask. "Satanael!"

He had told her, of course, about the blood, how there was always a price to be paid when summoning the innermost parts of yourself. But actually seeing the blood dripping from his eyes was different. Sae recoiled. And his awakening had been worse? There was another flash of blue light and the thing that must have been Satanael appeared. It was taller even than Leviathan's true form, nearly scraping the ceiling. Its eyes glowed with blue fire, and six great wings, half burned away, erupted from its back. It lifted its enormous gun and fired twice. The snakes vanished into the flame. It aimed at Leviathan's heart.

"Thank you for that," Akira said. His voice was deeper than Sae had ever heard it. "I'd forgotten what a rush that was. And if I could mop the floor with you last time and I took down a god since then, just how long do you think you'll make it?"

And to think they had been worried because she made more money. He had surpassed her long ago, the way a race car surpassed a snail. He could have taken her heart with a snap of his fingers; only his master plan and Makoto's faith in what good remained in Sae had prevented it. The man before her could do as he pleased.

"You still can't shoot me." There was a tremor in Leviathan's voice now. "You've given up too much to make her a vegetable." Her gaze found Sae's. "You begin to understand. You will never be his equal. You will never belong in this world. I'll be back for round two in a few minutes. Enjoy the breather. It's the last one you'll be getting for a long time." And with that, she vanished.

Sae doubled over. Her breath came in horse pants and a burning nausea filled her stomach. The stone was rough under her fingers and she could still taste of blood in her mouth. This was real. She wasn't hallucinating the demon hovering a few feet away. Akira was the Phantom again. She had almost died. On her knees, like her father. And more shadows were coming.

"Sae?" Akira shuffled forward. The skin she could see was pale and gaunt. "Are you all right?" His voice was his own again.

She looked up at him and shuddered. "You..." Her voice cracked and she hated herself for her weakness. "What have you done?"

"I couldn't let her hurt you." His gaze followed hers to where Satanael still stood at attention. "I guess that was a bit much. Sorry. He snapped his fingers, and Satanael vanished. He touched her lip. "You're bleeding."

"So are you." Their gazes met, the lawyer and the Wild Card. Tears stung Sae's eyes. No, she would not cry. A Niijima did not fall apart. She tried to stand, but her legs wobbled, and her back screamed in protest. Sae grunted. "You're going to have to help me up."

But instead of offering her in his hand, Akira touched her on the shoulder. Warmth and strength filled her as the pain slithered away. She felt younger, stronger. Even the fear curdled in her gut seemed distant, as if she were feeling it for someone else. She stood. "What was that?"

"Healing. I'm not as good as Makoto, but it'll keep you going." He seized the railing, and it was his turn to double over and retch. Sae grabbed him by the shoulders and held him as he shuddered. "Sorry," he said between coughs. "I forgot how much this takes out of me."

"If we survive this, I am going to strangle you. You make some kind of deal with the devil to save me, and then you almost kill yourself from exhaustion! If you're going to make stupid, romantic gestures, at least pace yourself!"

"Romantic gestures are all I know how to do, remember?" he said quietly. "On a scale of one to 'shut the hell up,' how pissed off are you?"

Trust him to be witty even now. "That depends on the consequences." The fear broke through and filled her. Consequences. Even she had read enough stories about men who made deals with the devil to save the women they loved. "Leviathan said she had a partner that was moving into position. Is that thing in your head?"

"No!" He stilled, listening. "I don't hear anything and I feel normal besides the whole nausea thing. Maybe it was just her way of screwing with us. She always liked big talk." He sobered. "But she didn't threaten to cripple people either. She's...darker. What the hell's going on?"

"I don't know. Maybe we can ask Morgana when we're not trapped in a room full of coffins with no weapons and Shadows on the way." She breathed in and out. _Don't panic. Don't think about what it means for your Shadow to be worse than before. Don't think about what's going to happen to Akira._ "She mentioned something about an armory. Do you have to be a Persona user for weapons to work on Shadows?"

"Not if it works the same way it did in the Metaverse. It just has to look realistic. You're not seriously thinking…"

She kicked off her heels. "I am thinking that I have had enough of being a damsel in distress for one night. If I die, it's not going to be because I didn't try." Anything was better than being on her knees and watching someone she loved bargain for her. "There must be some kind of backup power here. The Kirijos supposedly used all kinds of gadgets during the Dark Hour. Help me look. And where the hell are Mitsuru and Akihiko?"

"Are you leaving?" asked a trembling voice in English. "Please don't leave me here alone with those things!"

Sae rounded, and Akira put his fingers on the mask. Professor King huddled under the buffet table, shivering and surrounded by coffins. He stank of urine. He looked up at Sae and whimpered again. "You...that other one looked like you. Are you going to kill me?"

"Nobody is killing anybody." Akira knelt and touched Professor King on the shoulder just as he had Sae. King rolled from under the table and stood, pale but steady. "Are you all right?"

"Aside from humiliating myself, yes. Those were actual Shadows? All my research… I never dreamed that I would actually see one. And one powerful enough to have a human form." He looked at Sae again, but the way the boys in school who liked butterflies too much looked at their specimens. "Your Shadow? You must have some powerful repressed emotions. Perhaps suicidal ideation? Or maybe sexual repression, given her attire?"

"I liked him better when he was terrified." She crossed her arms. "About that armory. Or an escape route."

Akira bowed his head. His voice was robotic. "Three floors down. That's where Mitsuru and Akihiko are. There were lots of Shadows there, but not anymore. But they were very powerful, a lot more powerful than what I killed."

Sae stared at him. "Is there anything you can't do?"

"In a cognitive world?" His voice had a slight reverb again. "No. Healing, limited clairvoyance, increased agility. Plus fire, wind, and whatever else you can think of." He shuddered. "Paying for it is something else. Professor, can you give us a minute? The floor should be clear."

"But to do all that… you'd have to be the Wild Card. Why didn't you tell me?" He looked between Akira and Sae. "Oh. Yes, I'll just make myself inconspicuous and try not to die."

Akira braced himself against the wall. His skin was paler still. "I wish I could tell you to hide somewhere." His smile was tight. "Is this how you felt about the million yen? At best—at best—you are just going to be buying time to run away. And that's if you can get a hit in in the first place. I don't know where Leviathan dredged up the idea that you're weak, but you're not. You don't have to fight to prove it. Or offer to be thrown twelve stories."

"And you could have let me. You're rubbing off on me. But I am not letting that goth reject have the last word. I'll be exactly as careful as you would be in my place."

"That's comforting."

"Think about that the next time you want to do something romantic and stupid." She threaded his gloved fingers with her bare ones. Words were weapons, tools, and armor all in one. It was one thing to tell him he mattered when demons plagued him, harder to do it now. "But the other things Leviathan said..." Sae's throat was dry, and she swallowed. "There are things we need to talk about if we make it through, but I want you to know that you aren't the only one who's besotted."

"Besotted. Right." The color flooded back to his cheeks, and Akira stood straighter. He kissed her, the edges of his mask scraping against her skin. "You'd better not die, Empress. That's an order from your field leader."

"Roger that, Joker."

"You two are looking better," Professor King said when they collected him. "Also, I think I'm going to be sick again."

"Easy." Akira looked at her. "We will get through this."

They found Mitsuru and Akihiko right where Akira had set they would be. Mitsuru's hair had come loose, and Akihiko's jacket was torn. Despite that, Mitsuru held a fencing rapier with the same ease she held her wine glass. She nodded to them. "Good, you made it out of there. I'm sorry we couldn't help immediately, but I don't normally carry my Evoker on my person anymore. A serious security oversight." She looked around. "But what is all this?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Akira said. "Isn't this the Dark Hour?"

"No." Akihiko's face was grim. "The colors are all wrong. And we never had to deal with a sentient Shadow, not then anyway. It's like a bad copy."

Professor King paled "A corruption?"

 _He knows something._ "Leviathan spoke of a partner. It –I—never had this kind of power over the Palace. What kind of being would copy something that had already come to an end?"

"You think these pitiful deductions will save you?" Leviathan's voice echoed through the hallway. "Choose your weapons and place your bets! It's time for round two!"

"Weapons. Yes." Mitsuru tapped the wall and it swung away to reveal a half-full armory. "Take what you need, Mr. Kurusu."

"Ladies first." Akira stepped back on rubbery legs and allowed Sae to pass.

"But she doesn't have a Persona!" Akihiko blinked. "Does she?"

"But it's her Shadow. I'm not turning anyone down when we're a man short."

Sae stepped into the armory. Anything could work, as long as it like it could hurt. Swords, knives, clubs, pistols. Sweat formed on her palms. Akira was right. This was stupid. The closest thing she had to combat training was a yellow belt in judo and playing _Duck Hunt_ as a child.

Leviathan, inside her head now. _That's right, weakling. Just sit back and let the boy save you. Until the day comes that he can't. I hear they take wonderful care of paralytics these days._

Sae gritted her teeth and saw it. An airsoft UHP. The side-arm of the detectives who were the best of the best. Her father's service weapon. Her fingers closed around the grip. _I am not who I was before. I am proud of him._

 _Sentimentalist. The boy is rotting your brain._ But when Akira had retrieved a small switchblade and handgun, Leviathan's voice boomed once more. "Now that you're armed, round two can begin. The game is simple. You have until the end of the Dark Hour to find my partner somewhere in Port Island. Succeed and you win your heart's desire. Fail, and history repeats. You have thirty-one minutes. Starting… now!"

"Suggestions?" Mitsuru asked. "We have Shadow scanning equipment, and I can provide limited support, but that leaves us with only two Persona users and two civilians." She sniffed. "And I'm assuming the professor is in no condition to fight."

"I'd happily stay here."

Akira put his fingers to his temple again. "I don't think that's going to be an option. Shadows, on our six and closing fast. Strong ones."

"We don't have time for pointless fights." Mitsuru grimaced. "We're going to have enough trouble making it to wherever we need to go on foot. I wish my motorcycle wasn't the only working transportation."

"Maybe it isn't. And maybe Mitsuru doesn't need to leave the fight." It was the craziest idea she had ever had. Akira really was rubbing off on her. "Is there some way to get a message out? A signal someone several blocks away will see?"

"There's a beacon near the top of the tower. Are you saying you brought another Persona user with you?"

"Yeah. The cat." Akira fidgeted. "I know it sounds weird but—"

"Ours was a dog."

 _This world is completely insane._ Sae had no more time for conscious thought because the black masses of Shadows rounded the corner. They shifted and changed. More snakes, golden this time and almost as tall as she was. Her hand trembled as she squeezed the trigger. The snake closest to her hissed as if in pain. It had worked. It had actually worked. She could defend herself.

"I wouldn't call it 'defending yourself' as much as I would 'making it mad,'" Leviathan boomed. "I'd hate for this to end so quickly because you spent everything on the grunts."

"She has a point. Elevator's just around the corner."

"But what do we do about the snakes?"

"Leave them to me." Mitsuru raised the Evoker just as Sae had, but instead of pointing it at the snakes, pointed it at her own temple. A scream bubbled in Sae's throat, but no sound came out. She was going to...oh God. Mitsuru fired and gasped as if in fear or pain. A shape nearly the size of Satanael filled the hallway. Vaguely feminine, with skin the color of steel and a black dress that was all sharp edges. It and Mitsuru raised their hands and ice whizzed by and struck the snakes. A sound like discordant violins filled the air. Screaming. Ice covered the unnatural scales, and the serpents shattered into pieces.

Sae opened her mouth and closed it again. This...this was what fighting Shadows was. This was what Makoto had done for months without telling her? What Sae had unleashed on her in the Palace? Her knees wobbled dangerously. Makoto and Akira had said their work had become terrifying after Okumura's death, but how had they lasted that long in this world of monsters?

 _Because they are so much stronger than you._

Akira's arms came around her. "It's okay," he whispered. Then, to Mitsuru, "You shoot yourself in the _head_?"

"It's not bullets. More like injecting yourself with psychological trauma."

Professor King retched, and Sae stumbled toward the elevator. Akira kept his arm around her as the car sped upward. Sae barely resisted slumping against him. The visible half of his face was still ashen, and Mitsuru and Akihiko's jaws were set. Soldiers all of them. So was she, even if she was the new recruit trying not to vomit. Police academies turned out hundreds of those every year, who still managed to do their jobs and wait till they got home to fall apart. When the doors opened and they stepped out into the starlight and wind of the control tower, she swept the pistol back and forth and checked her corners like a good officer.

Nothing. She tensed. The tower was cramped, with no obvious way down except for the elevator. Exactly where she would have placed an ambush. The others seemed to realize it too because Akira put his hands to his temples. "Nothing up here. She must want us to send the signal."

Of course. "No fun if we run out of time because we don't have transportation." It was a good way to break a suspect, let them taste the possibility of freedom and then reveal how they never had a chance.

The lights flashed in Morse code: _Mona, help._ Sae just hoped Morgana was awake to see it. "So we just take the elevator back down and—"

A roar filled the air, and the ground shook beneath them. Sae braced herself against the railing as Akira was knocked into her. The doors to the elevator buckled as metal screamed on metal. The...thing that floated in the doorway was black and shriveled, with red slits where the eyes should be. It smelled like rotting flesh. Professor King screamed and whimpered.

She was a soldier now. Sae fired once, twice. The bullets bounced off as if the thing wore armor. "Courage is the name fools give to death." Leviathan's voice was acid. "Just like Father. Run or die."

"Is this your partner?" Akira shouted to the darkness. "Somehow I expected more." Satanael appeared and raised his gun. Electricity filled the air and poured down on the demon in the stream of pure energy. Nothing happened.

"Did I say 'fight or die' young man? You will have to pay the price. Or rather, my other self well."

Sharp, stabbing pain filled Sae's head and red spots clouded her vision. _This is what virtue will get you. Nothing but Feaster of All quite literally sucks out your brain. I'll leave you just enough to live. And then it will be only you and me. None of this cancer._

The beast—Feaster—charged her. Akira might have shouted her name. Blood dripped to the ground. She was on her knees for the second time that night.

 _Just like Father. Give in. You will never be a hero. You will never be happy._

Sae glared. Her blurred gaze found Akira, the lower half of his face frozen in horror. Akira who believed she was a hero. Who loved her because of that. Her fingers tightened on the gun. "Go to hell," she rasped.

 _You fool. You already tried bullets. Don't you understand that you are going to lose everything?_

But she could choose how. Sae whacked the Feaster where its nose would have been with the pistol and waited for the tentacles.

But there was a hiss like pain as it recoiled. Sae blinked. Why wasn't she dead? Strong, warm, human arms came around her and dragged her unresisting body backwards. The sound of wind filled the air again, but this time it was supporting her. Her head rested against Akira's chest as he hooked one arm under her legs. He was...they were...flying, sailing down towards the ground almost gently as the Feaster roared. Something white—ice? A slide?—formed at the edge of her vision and three dark shapes scurried down.

"Sae? You okay?" Akira's voice sounded very far away even as he cradled her. Sae groaned. Warmth and strength flooded into her as her world came back into focus. They were standing on the street, bathed in the yellow light and with stalled cars carrying only coffins surrounding them. Akira laid her on the ground and dropped to one knee. He looked like death.

"Stupid, romantic fools! How much are you going to give up tonight?"

"Like the lady said." Akira coughed. "Go. To. Hell."

"I think she would find it rather unpleasant. You are a fool, Kurusu. Have you forgotten the game you're actually playing? Because you've got almost nothing left in the tank and you only have fifteen minutes to find my partner. Excuse me, fourteen."

Crap. "Where's Morgana? And the others?" She stood and bit back a gasp. Sweat poured down Akira's face, and his cheeks were gaunt and bruised. Almost exactly as he had looked during the interrogation. "Akira?"

"I'm all right." He coughed. "Or I will be. But I don't think I'll be able to heal you again tonight. Damn it, Makoto and Morgana are so much better at this."

And then finally, Mitsuru and the others came into view. Mitsuru and Akihiko didn't look much better than Akira. "Thank you for giving us time to retreat. I'll contact the others and we can deal with that Shadow properly."

"Don't bother," Akira croaked. "I don't sense it anymore. The entire point was to force us to retreat. Which we did."

"So, what? This is all some kind of sick game?" Akihiko glared at Sae. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." She'd never been sadistic, as far as she knew. Indifferent to consequences and obsessed with winning, but never causing pain just for the sake of it.

 _Neither am I. Twelve minutes, and here comes your precious cat._

As promised, a black and white shape ran down the street, feet spinning almost like wheels. Morgana on two legs was smaller than she expected, with wide blue eyes that took up almost the whole of his face. His mouth hung open. "Joker! What happened to you? Why are there coffins in the street? Is this place like Mementos?"

So this was what it was like to understand a talking cat. "Leviathan's back, she brought friends, and Joker almost got himself killed saving my life. Meanwhile, we have twelve minutes to find whatever partner she has before 'history repeats' whatever that means. Can you help?"

"Probably. I'm not Futaba." He struck Akira lightly on the face and some of the bruises vanished. "What have I told you about pacing yourself?"

"Find shadow now. Lecture later."

Morgana stilled, and his eyes went wide. "Something powerful, about three kilometers west. Like Yaldabaoth powerful. And here's the really weird part. I can sense a bunch of what feels like pieces of Personas nearby. Trapped in something."

"Three kilometers west? That would put it about where the mall is, wouldn't it?" Terror washed over Sae like icewater. She might not have wielded the power of this world, but she had felt it that day in the antiques shop. Personas trapped in weapons, their power barely dormant. "Dr. Shinshaudo."

"Of course. I can't allow you to win. Save your precious proof, if you can."

"Mona, van!" No. Targeting an innocent person, and for what? To toy with her and Akira? This was what Leviathan wanted her to become? To stop caring about even the pretense of justice?

 _I can't allow you to win. How many innocent lives do you think you crushed as a prosecutor? It was all a game, after all._ But the voice inside her head was pained, raw. _Some games cannot be stopped until the end._

Morgana transformed. Mitsuru and Akihiko's eyes went wide, and Professor King blubbered, but Sae had lost the energy or will to even be shocked. She and Akira took a seat in the back, and it was her turn to cradle him. His eyes were glassy behind the mask. "I'm sorry."

Sae kissed the top of his forehead and hoped that helped.

Any hope that her deduction was wrong evaporated when Sae saw the antiques shop. The door had been blown off its hinges and glass was strewn everywhere. The dagger that had so fascinated Akira lay abandoned on the floor. Sae picked it up in her left hand. An echo of the power coursed through her like lightning. The things in here had been able to call down the wrath of God—or a god at least.

 _It won't help. Three minutes._

Sae took the stairs two at a time to the upper floor, Akira shuffling behind her and clutching the banister. The door at the end of the hall was open. Dr Shinshaudo lay on the bed. Her eyes were open but unseeing. The thing that stood over her was human-sized, wearing a ragged, travel-stained yellow robe. The same smell of rot clung to it. In its spindly hands were leatherbound journals. The journals. "Leave her alone!" Sae shouted with as much authority as she could muster.

"Will you make me, mortal?" The voice was deep and booming.

Akira fell to his knees behind Sae and screamed. "You...you're the one..."

"Who has been making you such generous offers? Yes." It took a step forward. The room grew colder. Why had she ever tried to fight? Why had she ever thought she could have a happy ending? Pleasure was all she could hope for. Love was nothing. Power was all that mattered.

No. No. She didn't believe that. That was Leviathan talking. Her worst aspects.

"You don't believe it, yet. But you will. You will serve me, both of you. I await you in Inaba."

Leviathan's voice echoed in the dark. _I am sorry. But justice must be done._

* * *

 _Future chapters will be posted as written. I try to keep to a weekly-ish update schedule._


	10. Chapter 10

_Succeed and you win your heart's desire. Fail, and history repeats._ Everything hurt, and Akira felt every pothole and bump in the road as the taxi sped to the hotel. Even breathing was an effort. This time, there had been no plan, no last-minute redemption, just Shinshaudo's unseeing eyes and Mitsuru all but shoving them out the door as time reasserted itself and Port Island sprang to life. Morgana, an ordinary cat once more, dug his claws into Akira's lap, and his hair stood up. Probably just barely restraining himself from berating Akira for stupidity. He was made for calling down wrath on evildoers, not healing the wounded and soothing their minds so that they could stay calm in battle, and even Wild Cards paid a price for going against their nature. But Sae and Professor King had needed a healer as much as a soldier. _And I would burn myself out one thousand times before I let that thing have her._

He wished Sae would say or do something. Scream, yell, hit him, something. But she sat opposite him, unmoving and silent. The light bleached the color from her skin and her eyes were dull and flat, with none of the fire, passion, or humor that so enthralled him. Her dress was a mess, and she had a death grip on the model gun. He ought to have taken her in his arms, kissed her, stroked her hair and told her everything that he was thinking. That no human should have seen what she had seen tonight, that no one who hit a Shadow in the nose was weak, that whatever corner of her brain that spawned Leviathan was wrong about everything. That he loved her. That he was sorry he wasn't stronger. But when he opened his mouth to speak, there was only the terrible burning in his chest.

The taxi stopped. "Can you walk?" Her voice was toneless.

He winced. "You'll have to help me." His voice was a croak.

But even as pain knifed his chest, shoulders, and legs, his mind still worked. That…thing had loomed over Dr. Shinshaudo. Her eyes had been sightless and unseeing, her arms folded as if for burial. Only the barest rise of her chest had given away that this wasn't a true corpse. Goro and the Conspiracy had left dozens of husks in their wake, and now it was happening again. For what? Journals? To screw with him? With Sae?

 _You will serve,_ said the voice in his head. _And in serving me, you shall rule._ Pain pricked behind his eyes. _You were yourself tonight. Didn't it feel good to obliterate those Shadows and terrify Leviathan? The pain will fade with practice, and there are so many hearts to take. You could free Sato now, tonight. Take the prosecutor's heart. I'll even help you._

He leaned into Sae as she half-carried him through the door. "No thanks," he whispered. "It works better when I don't."

 _And yet, I don't see Madarame's Shadow causing trouble. Leviathan was so easy to bring back. The world needs the Phantom._

Morgana ran ahead of them. "He needs to go to bed."

No. What he needed was something to soothe the pain so he could think straight and make sure that monster never hurt anyone ever again. "You and bed! I have work to do."

But Sae was already dragging him to the bed and laying him down gently. The barest ember kindled in her eyes. "Tell me how to help him," and fear crept into her flat voice. He was going to make that monster pay. And if he ever got his hands on Leviathan again, he would make her wish she had stayed reformed rather than cause the real Sae pain.

He let her pull his shoes off, but when she started on the buttons of his shirt with her trembling fingers, he caught her hand in his. "It'll be all right." It hurt to smile, but he managed it. "But I won't be any good for sex tonight."

"You—" A sob ripped from her throat and tears flowed from her cheeks. The tremor in her hands traveled up and down her body. "Oh, God," she said and her mask shattered into a thousand pieces and her emotions came roaring back to life. Fear. Pain. And something beyond all that that he could only call horror. "Oh God."

He watched helplessly as the sobs overtook her. Morgana looked between them and, apparently deciding there was nothing he could do for Akira at the moment, rubbed against her bare feet. "It's okay. You did really well for your first time in a Shadow world and not having a Persona. Ryuji came a lot closer to dying."

Akira coughed. "Not helping."

She sniffled. "This is what you were fighting for half a year? How are you not crazy? Makoto..."

"Technically, it was more like eight months…"

"Morgana..."

But Sae balled her hands into fists and bit her lip. Her breathing was labored and her voice sounded strange, the broken tone overlaid with the one she used during interrogations. "No. You're hurt. You broke yourself for me. You don't need to deal with my nervous breakdowns." She smoothed his hair. "What do you need?"

He coughed again. "Go to bed. You don't need to do anything else for me. You've done enough for me for a lifetime."

She flinched. "Yes, I suppose I have," and there was acid mixed with the pain in her voice. "That's twice now I've almost gotten you killed."

"You two deserve each other." Morgana's fur bristled as he glared at them. "Ms. Niijima, finish undressing Akira and go to bed. Neither of you are going to be any good against what's haunting you if you don't get some rest."

"Because we're going to get so much sleep with the eldritch abomination seared into our brains." He studied Sae's ashen skin and the shadows like bruises under her eyes. He had been strong enough to prevent this, once. Strong enough to change the hearts of all Tokyo and free them from a tyrannical god. But now he was just a frightened man hairsbreadth from breaking apart. "Will you stay with me tonight? Both of you? To keep the darkness away for a little while?"

"Oh, Akira," Sae whispered and she was crying again, but it was a different kind of crying. She wiped her eyes and climbed into the bed beside him, still in the dress. Her grip was like a vise as her arm snaked around his waist and she buried her damp face in the his chest. Morgana curled at his feet. Akira lay and listened to Sae's ragged breathing. She was cold, but still warmer than he was and Akira curled against her and tried to soak in the heat. Sae burrowed against him in return, and Akira stroked her hair. She loved him, and he loved her, and no god who made imitation Dark Hours was going to take that away.

It was on that note that he fell asleep.

 _He would never get used to being on TV. The lights shone almost but not quite in his face and the set still looked like someone had vomited a rainbow. The crowd—not just high schoolers, but people of all ages—leaned forward in their seats, waiting to hear what Japan's premier young adult author was up to now. Sae sat beside him, her skin glowing with health and a small smile playing at her lips. The diamond and garnet ring on her left hand glittered in the light. "Deep breaths."_

 _"Mr. Niijima," said the host in a smooth voice. "Your works are set in fantastical realms with magic, but there's no denying the recognizable types. Your heroes are frequently those who are ostracized by society. You seem especially fond of former criminals. How do you respond to those who say that you are corrupting the youth?"_

 _"I would remind them that Japan has a long history of prioritizing rehabilitation. Redemption is out of reach for no one truly wants it." He shot Sae a quick smile. "Those who choose to change themselves for the better are the greatest heroes of all. I would also remind them that many of these young people exist on the margins and it is society as a whole that commits the real crimes. They need to know that they can fight back against injustice, that authority that comes from power is not the same as moral authority. I hope my books give them a voice."_

 _"Passionately spoken, sir, but I suppose we can expect nothing less from the husband of Japan's premier legal crusader." He turned to Sae. I understand you have undertaken a new case aimed at requiring all interrogations to be videotaped?"_

 _"That's correct. No one knows better than me how tempting it is to take shortcuts. I—"_

 _"I have a question," said a booming voice. "Do you really think this fantasy has any chance of becoming reality while you remain a pathetic mortal? They will eat you alive."_

 _The audience changed. Those who had been hanging on his every word now stood up, trembling with rage._

 _"What do you think you are? You're going to create chaos!"_

 _"Do you want criminals to go free?"_

 _"Get a real job!"_

 _"He should have been hanged."_

 _Sae convulsed, her blazer vanishing to be replaced by a long black dress. Her eyes flashed gold. "This is what I really am. No redemption ever really sticks. You really think I'd risk everything for a foolish boy like you?"_

 _The host vanished, replaced by the tall thing in yellow rags. "I'm your only hope of happiness. Take my_ _offer, Phantom Thief of Hearts."_

His eyes snapped open. Cold sweat poured down his face. Bed. He was in bed in the hotel room. Morgana perched on his chest, looking terrified. Akira turned his head, and let out a shaky breath. Sae sat on the edge of the bed, almost but not quite touching him. She must have gotten up at some point, because she had changed into her blazer. Her skin was pale, and her mouth was half-open, but it was her, brown eyes and all. "Just a nightmare," he whispered. "Just a nightmare."

Her arms came around him. "Yes. Just a nightmare." She pressed her lips to his forehand. "I'm here. Morgana's here. We're the only ones." She held him like that as he shivered and fought to keep his breathing under control.

"I thought you were going to kill me, thrashing around like that," Morgana said. "I wanted to wake you, but she said I shouldn't."

"You never wake someone having a night terror."

"You weren't sleeping any better. I heard you whimpering."

Sae glared at Morgana. "It's no business of yours. I thought you were supposed to be some kind of expert on these worlds. So, please, just tell me what's going on and why Leviathan is back and why someone or something is trying to drive me and Akira crazy. And what the hell that thing in yellow is."

"I…don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Sae's voice became colder and sharper with every word and her grip tightened around Akira until it hurt. "What good are you if—" She inhaled sharply. "Sorry. Sorry. You saved our lives last night, and you didn't deserve that." Another deep breath. "Would you like some fish?"

"Apology breakfast? I insist on salmon." He hopped down from the bed. "I don't know what's going on. My expertise is only with the Metaverse, and that's gone. Let me think on it for a few minutes while Akira makes himself decent." But as he headed towards the common area, he whispered, "Maybe we should have taken her heart? Would that have stopped the corruption?"

 _Told you so._

Sae flinched and stood up to walk to the window where Port Island was beginning to stir to life. She wrapped her arms around herself. Akira wished suddenly, perversely, that he had a fraction of Yusuke's talent. He would have liked to draw her like this, pensive, sad, her jacket an armor against the demons. Empress Katsuki stood at the balcony, wondering just who would die to end this war. Akira followed her to the window and put his arms around her. She didn't lean back against him. "Is what he said true? Is Leviathan back because you didn't steal my Treasure?"

Oh crap."I don't know. You and Futaba are the only targets I ever wanted to hang around with after the job was over, and hers is the only good guy Shadow I've ever seen. Also, I like not being dead." He turned her to face him and ran a finger down her cheek. "If you want to blame something, blame that thing in yellow rags."

She laughed bitterly. "There you go again, comforting me when you're the one having night terrors. After rescuing me."

"It's not a competition." He hoped his smile was playful. "Anybody who has had a winged bat-thing attack them is allowed to freak out as much as they want."

"I hate this. I hate being useless," she whispered. Sae stroked his face, running her fingers over his lips and jaw and smoothing his hair. "I can't do anything about that world, but in this one, let me help you. If there's anything I can do, just say the word. You deserve that much." She kept stroking him, gentle smooth motions that made him shiver and bite his lip. "Heroes are allowed to freak out, too."

He swallowed. "And writers? Thing keeps telling me that bringing back the Metaverse is the only thing that will let me have a happy ending. And I really, really want one now."

"Me too. But I want a happy ending with the writer." She pushed away very gently to rummage through his slacks discarded on the floor until she found the pocket watch. She pressed it into his palm and folded his fingers over it.

 _Pathetic_. But the voice was faint and weak like an old man. As long as he remembered he really was and what he really wanted, they would be all right. He might have to don the mask again, but only to deal with monsters. And then he would have his ordinary happy ending with this brilliant, extraordinary woman. He dressed, quietly, and put the watch in his breast pocket, the metal a comforting weight against his skin.

Morgana sat on the table, his tail swishing back and forth. "I've been brainstorming—and waiting very patiently for that fish—and I want you to tell me everything that Leviathan and the other guy said and did. I have a theory, but I need to be sure."

So Akira did, beginning from the moment the lights went out and ending when he blacked out in Dr. Shinshaudo's bedroom. Sae interjected from time to time, filling in Leviathan's running commentary in her head.

Morgana frowned. "Justice must be done. Hmmm. And you're right that Leviathan does seem more malicious now than she did five years ago. But also more limited. My apologies to Ms. Niijima, but Leviathan never could take a loss. But she brushes off Akira rubbing her nose in it? In fact, she almost completely ignores him once he activates his Persona and seems actually upset that the doctor suffered a breakdown."

"She was too busy trash talking me. It's been like this the whole time. Every other sentence of hers in my head is that I should just give in because there's no point. But I'd rather die than be what I was before."

"Shadows are the parts of ourselves we would rather not acknowledge; she's not a separate person."

"But I don't..." Her brow furrowed. "I was miserable in the prosecutor's office after Dad died. I've got everything I ever wanted only after. More than I deserve, really." Recognition dawned in her eyes as she and Morgana looked at each other. "You're saying that I'm doing this to myself? That this is all some kind of punishment?"

Akira closed his eyes. The image of Sae on the balcony, bleeding and terrified on her knees as Leviathan glared at her and made her ultimatum filled his vision. He found her hand under the table. "But you don't deserve this. You were abrasive and way, way too focused on winning but Shido and Kaneshiro were way higher on my list of people I wouldn't have minded losing it. That was why Makoto was so sure we wouldn't have to steal your heart—that you weren't too far gone. And why team up with that thing in yellow? Isn't that a bit, well, human?"

"That I genuinely have no idea about, or why he seems to be targeting both you and Ms. Niijima specifically. The previous incidents you told me about seemed to be connected to a specific place, but the visions started in Tokyo and the creature promised to meet you in Inaba. If we could discover his identity, we might be able to make more sense of this, but I have no idea how to do that."

"Google?" Sae rubbed her temples. "All these other things you and the other Persona users fought were mythological or whatever else. He probably is too." Then, as Morgana stared at her, "Just because I can't turn into a van doesn't mean that I can't put two and two together or profile a suspect."

It wasn't a bad idea. But the idea that Sae might think she deserved this when other, greater villains got off with so much less, it offended him as a matter of justice even more than it did as the man who loved her. "We'll have a look on my laptop. Enjoy your fish."

"You know that you don't deserve this, right?" Akira asked when they were safely back in the bedroom. "I meant what I said. You were a jerk, to be blunt, but I spent nearly a year contending with real evil." He took her hands. "And that's before we get into what you've done since, Ms. 'I'm-going-to-take-down-a-crime-boss.'"

"I...I don't want to lose my mind. Or break my neck. I want to free Sato and take you out to dinner. As for what I deserve, well, I imagine I deserve what every prosecutor who learned to play the game without breaking the rules deserves." She smiled a little. "Maybe you're my reward and my punishment. Protecting me from a world I don't belong in and where I can't protect myself." She disentangled one hand to stroke his chest, following the lines of his scars even through his shirt. "And reminding me of what the system can do."

Akira swallowed the lump in his throat. "Just remember that you're more than her." He should have said more, but he didn't know what. Maybe the option of chasing down Shadows to deal with psychological problems had made him lazy. Another reason he shouldn't bring Mementos back. "Let's see if we can Google ourselves a god."

 _Yellow rags. Mask. Supernatural_. His brow furrowed. That was probably going to get him two million results for cheap costumes. His gaze wandered to the knife on the floor, still where Sae had left it next to the model gun. It had spoken to him of someone. _He Who Must Not Be Named._

And they are the thing was, staring back at him with his slits for eyes. A crude thick-line drawing from an early twentieth century book, but undeniably the same entity. "Hastur," he read. "Sometimes called the King in Yellow. Associated with shepherds—shepherds, what the hell do shepherds have to do with anything?—but also nihilism and corruption. He makes bargains with unsuspecting magicians with his Unspeakable Oath. While the details differ and often involve the magician getting his supposed heart's desire, the deal always ends with the magician thoroughly corrupted and indistinguishable from Hastur himself."

Sae put her hands on Akira's shoulders. "That would explain why he wants you to take a deal. And all that talk about power being the only thing that matters."

"Who better to corrupt than a Wild Card?" Lavenza had told him they were avatars of hope, just the opposite of what Leviathan and Hastur had been going on about. "He woke Leviathan up, so if we kick him in the teeth, what do you want to bet that she goes back to what she was before and leaves you alone?" And kicking gods in the teeth was something he had been very good at. "And it has the journals. So, same deal as before: get the journals and we win."

"We can hope. He said he was waiting for us in Inaba. I suppose we have no choice. I wonder what kind of nightmare world this Midnight Channel was?"

Another nightmare world. More summoning Satanel and facing the monsters of the collective unconscious that no ordinary human should have to see, let alone fight. He turned in his chair to look at Sae. "If you want to get as far away from this as possible, I don't blame you. I hear Tahiti is lovely this time of year." He touched his breast pocket. "Maybe, maybe as long as I have this, I'll be okay. You don't have to risk yourself to keep me in line."

"No, I want to see this through." She exhaled. "Leviathan can be in my head in Tokyo just as easily as Inaba, and I'd just be proving her right about me." She ruffled his hair. "Someone has to keep you from being too noble for your own good, Joker."

"It's part of my charm." Inside, though, his heart was pounding. He was walking into hell again, just as surely as when he had plumbed the depths of Mementos. This time, he had no Velvet Room, even fewer allies, and he'd have to come up with a new way to get equipment in a small town in the middle of nowhere. And she wanted to plunge into the abyss? "You're sure?"

"I'm sure." She brushed her lips against him. "After all, we're still Phantom Thieves. Partners?"

"Always." _You made a very serious mistake, Hastur. You made this a fight. Ask Leviathan what I can do in a fight. Your days are numbered. What do you have to say to that?_

* * *

 _Nine hours earlier…_

It was one minute after midnight and Ai Kinoka felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on. Pain pressed behind her eyes. Stress, probably. Someday, someone was going to give Kirijo a well-deserved prison sentence, and Ai hoped it was her. Thinking that just because she was wealthy and connected, she could negotiate a plea bargain for a man so obviously guilty that a first-year law student could have gotten a conviction.

You learned to pick your battles as a prosecutor, to pursue those cases where the evidence was so solid that even the lay judges could swayed. And, if the case was important enough and you were sure enough that you were right, you made sure the police found the evidence and didn't ask questions about how they got the confession. The law, after all, was only a tool, and usually a tool of the powerful to protect themselves, with justice having precious little to do with it. Justice required knowing how to beat them at their own game and when to discard laws and procedures. And then, once in a lifetime, if you were among the best of the best—and Ai was—a case like Sato's presented itself. A case so sensational that the woman who won it would have real power. She could start imposing her justice on the world because she was strong enough. Be an example to other little girls who wanted to be something more than a wife and mother. And no head of a desiccated corporation was going to stop her.

Neither, she thought, with a twinge of regret, was Niijima. The boy must have rotted her brain. Someday, she was going to take time to look through those old files—probably redacted to hell and back—and piece together what really happened when you stripped away all the rumors about changing hearts. And possibly be standing by with tissues and a good bottle of sake when the affair crashed and burned.

The pain grew sharper. Ai blinked and shook her head. Had the table moved when she wasn't looking? And why did the air stink of piss and shit? But the other party guests clinked their glasses and continued talking as if nothing had happened. That was it, as soon as this was over, she was taking a nice, long vacation somewhere tropical.

That was when she saw the shoes. Purple high heels discarded on the balcony as if someone had kicked them off in a great hurry. She picked one up. Not a hallucination, then. She cleared her throat until the woman nearest her broke off her conversation. "Excuse me, do you know who left these here?"

"No idea." The woman's voice dropped to a whisper. "It's hardly the strangest thing I've seen at a Kirijo party."

Ah, yes. There'd always been rumors about the Kirijos being neck-deep in weird things. No wonder Niijima and Kurusu had gotten involved.

Niijima...Niijima had been wearing purple. But Niijima had gotten so good at stretching her paycheck after her father died that it had been an office joke. No way she would leave her shoes lying around. Then again, why would anyone leave their shoes in the middle of a black-tie party? And why was she the only one who seemed to notice that smell?

She didn't see Niijima for the rest of the night, but she did see Kirijo. A few strands had escaped her perfect coiffure and her face was flushed from some exertion, but her smile never faltered, even if the man on her arm kept whispering to her in a low voice. Ai squared her shoulders and marched forward. "Ms. Kirijo," she said with her best cocktail party smiled. "I apologize for earlier. Justice must be done, you understand?"

"Justice is a complicated thing, Ms. Kinoka. As I'm sure you know."

"Sometimes." Ai kept her voice as bland as possible and held up the shoes. "Do you have any idea why someone would leave these on the balcony?"

There. Just for the smallest fraction of a moment, Kirijos eyes widened. "Sometimes my guests overindulge. I'll see that these are returned." She all but snatched them from Ai's hand.

That might have been the end of it, if she hadn't had another flash of pain and decided to stop by the all-night pharmacy for a bottle of aspirin on her way back to the hotel. Police milled about, talking in low voices. Ai slowed her walk. Port Island was a strange town, and it had had an exciting few days, but it wasn't her jurisdiction. She had enough to worry about and she got back to Tokyo. _Just keep walking…_

"...weird Kirijo shit," said one of the officers.

Ai stopped. "What's going on?" She fished her badge from her purse. "Can I assist you, officers?"

The younger snapped to attention. "Ah, no ma'am. We have everything in hand, ma'am. Just responding to a medical emergency, ma'am."

"Then where's the ambulance? "

"Don't worry about it. This is way out of your jurisdiction, prosecutor."

Anger burned under her skin. Someday, someday they would answer to her. "You know, law enforcement is a pretty small world. Your chief and I have to attend a lot of the same seminars. I could put in a good word for you. Get you off dirty work duty. Something with a chance for an actual promotion?"

They looked at each other. "Been covering for that bitch ever since I started," said the younger. "You think you can get me into property crimes? Something with absolutely no weird stuff like something out of a fucking horror movie?"

"I can," she lied. "Why don't you tell me about this 'horror movie stuff?'"

"We got called for cleanup duty in the antiques store. Broken glass everywhere. At first, we thought it was a robbery. But nothing seemed like it had been taken. And then they bring the body of the doctor who runs the place out. I saw her just as they were put in there in the endurance. It was like someone had sucked out her brain."

"You mean a coma?"

"I've seen those." He shuddered. "It was like she was dead and not dead at the same time. I heard you guys had to deal with something like that a few years back, but I just want to deal with nice normal stuff."

"This was normal," said the other officer with more vehemence than was strictly necessary. "Everybody knows the doctor was in debt up to her eyeballs to Okaba. Probably ordered a hit on her before he died."

"Then why wasn't it all nice and bloody?"

"Shut up!"

First the shoes, now this. If she didn't know better, she would start thinking that there was something to these rumors of supernatural horrors. Niijima would have loved a case like this. Niijima who had been the investigator the last time people dropped into comas or worse for no reason. Who was so sure there was another Akechi. Who had worn purple heels tonight.

 _There's no such thing as ghosts._ But if there was...something out there that could drive people to murder or stupors, well that was a complication. Niijima had once compared the justice system to a casino—all that time chasing down Okaba, which was probably something else warranted investigation—but the truth was that it was more like a game of shogi. A good lawyer had backup plans on top of backup plans. If she somehow lost this case, she'd be the one handling property crimes for the rest of her life, unless she caught an even bigger fish. Or unless she found out whatever the hell Niijima was looking for and turned it to her advantage. Maybe it was time to take that vacation a little early.

"All right Niijima," she whispered. "Let's do this fair and square. May the best woman win."


	11. Chapter 11

_This story is now abandoned. I started writing long before I played the game ("What do you mean I can't have the hot lawyer?") I've finished. Good news is the game itself put the ship into OTP-ville. Bad news is that a got a lot just plain wrong that I can't fix, most notably that Shadow Sae is more annoying than a credible antagonist, but also that the romance is really rushed because the game doesn't really cover them getting to know each other. So I present to you the unpolished first half of chapter eleven. I am working on a canon-compliant fic that's a little over half done and should begin posting soon._

* * *

 _If I'd known I would be me doing my entire wardrobe here, I would have brought another suitcase._ Of course, Sae thought with a grim smile, most people who bought close on vacation didn't have to worry about running away from monsters. The flats complemented her blazer, but more importantly, she wouldn't have to waste precious seconds discarding them if the worst happened. She had made other, grimmer purchases while Akira finished packing. The holster pressed ever so slightly against her hip. There were advantages in being the daughter of a cop, like knowing how they carried their service weapon during plainclothes work and how to keep a realistic-looking weapon inconspicuous. She would not be caught offguard again.

She entered the suite for the last time to find Akira doing his own preparation. He stood in front of the vanity, elbows and knees bent, weight on the balls of his feet. The knife came out in a single, fluid motion. She had seen knife tricks before and watched her father and other officers trained in CQC, but Akira was something else entirely. All she saw was a metallic blur as the knife spun and changed from hand to hand. Step forward, thrust upward, circle around, all with the same fluid movements. He took the grip in hand and spun the blade so it was perpendicular to his neck and jabbed it into the air.

Exactly where the carteroid artery would be on Hastur if he had arteries.

Sae shivered. It was one thing to let him caress her skin with the flat of a penknife. There was always a little playfulness behind her gasps. But watching his muscles tense and flex, the steel behind his eyes reminded her again of that man in a mask. Her protector in that dark world they were entering, the nearest a person could be to a god and still be flesh and blood. And if she needed that man against an actual god, well she had read the stories of mortals who fell in love with those things beyond them. They tended to end up transformed into trees.

 _You really think pathetic toys will help you if Hastur gets his hooks into him?_

No, she didn't. Which was an excellent motivation to defeat Hastur. She cleared her throat. "Ready to go?"

He froze mid-strike. His skin shone with sweat and with one guilty half-smile he was Akira again. Sae relaxed. He was always Akira, she reminded herself. And she knew he would never hurt her as surely as she knew a compass pointed north. Her wonderful darling writer and occasional savior of the world. "Sure." He holstered the knife.

Sae raised an eyebrow at the small, telltale bulge at his hip. "Might want to rethink that. I'm not so good at defense attorney that I can get you out of a weapons charge if they actually find the weapon. 'I'm fighting a being of the collective unconscious still isn't considered a justified reason."

He blinked and looked down. "Sorry. Still getting used to this. Kept everything in my bag last time."

"And the police never caught you?"

"Well, you know what they say: the smart people in law enforcement are the prosecutors." He smiled and ran a hand down her side. "And the really smart ones of those become defense attorneys."

Sae chuckled. It felt good to laugh, to know that she hadn't forgotten how. "Flatterer. But use an ankle holster. Less noticeable for a knife that size."

He cocked his head to one side. "Are you telling me how to break the law? How do you know so much about concealed weapons?"

"Ah, yes, because the daughter of a police officer and a former prosecutor wouldn't know the first thing about how to hide a weapon. Also…" She sobered and adjusted her jacket by the smallest fraction so he could see the model gun. His eyes widened. "I'm going to do everything I can keep us both safe, and if that means bending the law, so be it."

 _Anything to win? I should have thought of this ages ago: the moment someone you love is threatened all that talk about how we are a nation of laws goes right out the window. Maybe you should run back to SIU, see if they'll take you._

Sae rubbed her temples. This wasn't the same thing at all. Knives were permitted as long as the user had a justifiable reason and "could be forced to fight for his life in a cognitive realm at any moment" was justifiable, even if the authorities wouldn't believe him. Her father had known when to let things slide for the sake of justice, and so must she.

Akira put his arms around her. "I really am corrupting you." There was something dark behind his easy tone. "Before the other night, I'd kind of hoped I'd forgotten about all this. But it turns out knives and guns and Personas are like bicycles. I know way too much about how to hurt people. I don't blame you for being a little nervous watching me."

So he had noticed. "I trust you. And when this is over, you are going to make your deadline if I have to handcuff you to the desk, Kurusu." And then maybe he really would forget all the violence and death and be at peace. She buried her nose in his neck. That was what she wanted as a reward for surviving this, if she did: peace and quiet and figuring out how to make things work and dealing with normal things like schedules and deciding how they were going to split the bill. Her life would never be entirely free of violence or horror, but let it be the sort that every defense attorney had to deal with. Let her learn how to keep him.

Morgana darted through the door. "You don't want to miss the train." He sighed. "Have I mentioned how much I hate carrying cases?"

And also how to have a talking cat as a roommate. Sae smiled despite herself. "I think I am being corrupted." She pecked Akira on the lips I wouldn't have it any other way."

But as they passed through a restaurant serving coffee and strangely-shaped bread to vacationing Europeans on their way to the lobby, Sae's stomach churned. Sitting at the table closest to the door and looking as if she had croissants there every morning, was Mitsuru. With the heels Sae had given up for lost poking ever-so-inconspicuously out of her bag. She gestured for them to sit. "Ms. Niijima, Mr. Kurusu, how nice to see you up and about. I trust you recovered?"

Akira and Sae looked at each other and sat. She had hoped to be finished with Kirijos and their machinations. "As recovered as we can be. We have a train to catch soon."

"Then you are committed to this?"

"I don't think we have a choice, but yes I am committed. I am going to free my client." _And find a way to defeat this monster_ remained unspoken but lingered in the air between them. She stiffened. Hastur might be the most dramatic thread, but a knife in the dark would leave her just as dead and all of Mitsuru's attempts to make the case go away had failed. "I hope that's not a problem."

"A problem, and I still think you're foolish, but the thing hunting you is a much bigger problem. I wish I could offer more help, but someone has to protect this city if the false Dark Hour was more than a parlor trick. No, I wanted to return these." She put the shoes on the table. "And to apologize. It seems that I miscalculated in bringing the prosecutor here."

Akira gripped the table. "Miscalculated how?"

"She noticed the heels on the balcony. I wasn't at my best, so I'm afraid I might have only made her more suspicious. And this morning I find that she spoke to the officers I asked to clean up Dr. Shinshaudo's shop and that she bought a ticket on the Seiya Express bound for Inaba."

"Wonderful."

"So she knows something weird is going on." Akira's brow furrowed. "We can use this. I mean, the end goal is to convince people that Shadows exist and get Sato acquitted. If I can convince her like I convinced you, it makes things a lot easier. Assuming she doesn't find something to arrest us for in the meantime."

"We'll be careful." Tension worked its way up and down Sae's spine. Kinoka was nothing compared to the supernatural enemies they faced, but that she was taking an interest right after Hastur appeared was suspicious. So many careers had turned to ashes after Shido's defeat. A prosecutor with her eye on a promotion could do worse than bring down the Phantom Thief of Hearts for good. Or the former colleague who remembered where some of the bodies were buried. She took back the shoes. "If there's nothing else..."

"One thing. May I speak with you in private, Ms. Niijima?" Mitsuru's voice softened as she looked at Akira. "I promise I won't keep her long. Just a bit of girl talk."

Akira returned her gaze, and there was confusion in his eyes. Confusion and that hard, glittering glare he had possessed when training with the knife. "If it's all right with Sae."

"I'll be fine."

"If you're sure." With the barest touch to Sae's shoulder and a last glare at Mitsuru, Akira walked off.

"He really is quite something," Mitsuru said when he had gone. Her voice was still soft, and Sae could almost believe that she had once been a high school student whose boyfriend had to teach her about fast food. "I wish you had walked away when I told you to. I wish you could walk away."

"Because you're afraid of what the public will do?"

Mitsuru shook her head. "Because the only thing worse than fighting a battle for reality is being on the fringes of that fight. Knowing that, for all your wealth and all your power, your memories, your free will, your very existence are in the hands of someone else and there is absolutely nothing you can do because Fate or Igor or whoever else has decreed that you aren't the chosen one. And then you discover that it's even worse than that: the chosen one is still an ordinary boy who changes your life without any magic at all."

 _Mitsuru and Minato were dating. I don't think she ever got over it._ "I know all that. Believe me, after last night, I've learned all I want to know about being powerless."

"I hope you're right. It's the hardest thing in the world to love a Wild Card. Especially..." Mitsuru shook her head. "Well, there's nothing for it now."

The tension in her spine intensified. "Especially what?"

"Do you really want to know?" Mitsuru leaned forward. "You haven't awakened. Everything I know about Shadows suggests that you should have a Persona. There were always ordinary people awake during the Dark Hour, but most of them lost their memories if they weren't consumed by Shadows, but you do it without special training. You have endured severe psychic shocks. Very few people remain both completely normal and knowledgeable of this world, but you do."

"You're saying that I have this potential inside me? I could _fight_ Hastur? Protect Akira?" The chatter of the surrounding diners faded away as Sae's world narrowed to that thought. She had always assumed Personas were a reward for strength of will, those like Makoto who did what they thought was right no matter the cost. But it she could truly wield that power...she wouldn't be at Leviathan's mercy. No more of her knees scraping stone and blood dripping from her lips and watching helplessly as those she loved made bargains to save her. "Tell me how."

Mitsuru held up a hand. "Please, let me finish. There are also those who cannot awaken in the same way that a colorblind person can't see red despite being aware of it. You may be such a person. And, if you are, Shadows will be drawn to you. This world, this life, will never quite leave you alone."

"So, I'm what? Some kind of genetic damsel in distress?"

"Possibly. Or it may be your Shadow preventing it. Persona users don't have Shadows, generally. Either way, I don't envy you."

Sae raked her hands through her. _You will never be his equal._ The darkness would come again and again, around her and perhaps even for her. She would watch Akira do his duty—because how could ignore suffering when he had the power to do something about it?-as she and her mother watched her father do his duty.

 _And we know how that ended. Of course, given how things are going, you'll probably die or go crazy a long time before he does. This is your precious redemption. Still want to deny me_?

Sae put a hand on the holster. She wasn't a hero, whatever Akira said. Heroes could do more than endure. "Let me ask you a question, then," she whispered. "If you could make it so you and Minato never met, would you?"

"Not for a moment," Mitsuru said with a sad smile.

Sae clenched her fist under the table. If she could find a way to master Leviathan and fight these battles on the field, then she would. But if not, if she was doomed only to watch, then perhaps this was another part of her punishment: to figure out how to survive as a mere mortal and to make sure Akira and Makoto survived as heroes. "Then I have a train to catch. Goodbye, Ms. Kirijo."

"Goodbye, Ms. Niijima. And good luck."

But Sae's steps were leaden as she rejoined Akira. "What did she want?" he asked. His hand hovered over her shoulder, almost but not quite touching.

"Just reminding me of how dangerous the collective unconscious is. Apparently, there's a good chance that I'm some kind of Shadow snack food." She told him what Mitsuru had said. His jaw set, and lines formed between his brows and around his mouth. "I wish...I wish I had your power. Or that I didn't know about all this." She flinched. "No, that means I wouldn't have you. I wish I didn't have to worry so much. I wish I could help you."

"Well, you're already saving me from going to jail again, so that something." He smiled. "Clearly, I need to take you to a few superhero movies. The hero always has a perfectly ordinary person who ends up saving his tail. Just like you did last time."

The Seiya Express gleamed in the midafternoon light. Just as before, the porters took their bags and Akira offered her his hand. It was still warm and strong and the sheer old-fashioned gallantry of it made Sae smile despite everything. "Such a gentleman."

"You two are worse than I am," Morgana whispered from the carrying case. "I expect to be released promptly this time. Do you know how hard it is to pick locks with your paws?"

A cluster of people had gathered in the dining car despite the hour, apparently fascinated by a small sign the staff had erected. _Special quiz night! 8 PM. Drinks! Prizes! Get to know your fellow passengers! Twenty-five hundred yen entry fee. All proceeds go to the Lighthouse Project for Human Trafficking Victims._ _Speak to a steward to enter._

Akira read. "We should enter."

Sae raised an eyebrow. "Work, remember?" If she had to fight these battles as an ordinary human, she would work as hard as she possibly could. "I need to go over the files on the Inaba murders. It may give us a clue on when and how our mutual friend will strike. And I need to decide which potential interview subjects to approach first."

"You can do that later." He looked suddenly tired. "I need to do something fun that isn't going to remind me of the thing trying to drive me personally crazy."

Oh. Of course he would need something. Every attempt to unwind in Port Island had led to some adventure or other. He needed to be more than Joker the same way she needed to be useful. She smiled. "Well, if you don't mind me beating you even more thoroughly than I did at ping-pong then I suppose I can free an hour or two."

"Is that so?"

"I was top of my class for a reason."

"Funny. I was also top of my class. And I'm a writer. That means I'm the master of useless trivia. Prepare to lose very badly, Ms. Niijima." The light was back in his eyes and he was once more her handsome, dashing Akira with the arrogant smile. Sae's stomach flipped to the side. It was almost enough to make her want to let him win.

Almost. "Side bet to make things interesting? Winner claims a reward of their choice this evening." She leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Anything they want."

Akira flushed scarlet. This was going to be fun.

 _You're wrong, Leviathan. This is my redemption. And there's nothing you can give me to make me give it up._

"Mr. Kurusu, Ms. Niijima," Professor King called. "What are you doing here? I thought you would have been on the first train back to Tokyo."

Sae turned. Professor King looked and smelled far better than he had earlier, even if he was still wearing that ghastly yellow shirt. "I would have thought you would have been on the first train back to America."

He frowned. "Unfortunately, I have to see this through, just as it seems you do. I've seen Personas and Shadows with my own eyes.. I can't rest until I have solid proof. Perhaps we could speak later? I'm planning on entering the trivia contest tonight, but I'll be staying at the Amagi Inn once we reach Inaba."

Akira had gone rigid and paled beside her and sweat formed on his brow. "Yes, I'll do that." There was the barest hint of a tremor in his voice as he seized Sae's hand in an iron grip. "If you'll excuse me, Ms. Niijima and I need to go to cargo." He all but dragged Sae away as King blinked in confusion.

"What was that?" Sae whispered, but Akira only raised a finger to his lips and kept almost-but-not-quite running towards cargo and Morgana's carrying case.

Akira all but ripped the door open. Morgana's eyes were wide. "I know I said to be prompt but you didn't have to—what's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Worse." Akira shivered. "Professor King? I think he's Hastur."

"What?" It sounded ridiculous. King definitely knew more than he was saying about the occult, but Hastur? King had also been awake during the false Dark Hour. King who was also hunting to prove the existence of Personas. King who always wore the same yellow shirt. Sae put a hand to her forehead. "King in Yellow." Every muscle in her body seized. The supernatural brushing against her and she hadn't even noticed, just like with Akechi. "What do we do?"

"We could confront him, force him to transform and get this over with." His eyes had that hard look again. "I'm looking forward to the idea of shoving his teeth down his throat."

"No. His name is suspicious, but it's hardly proof." She spent enough of her life going off half-cocked because she was desperate to win. "Definitely probable cause to bring him in for an interview."

He forced a half-smile. "Fine, we'll just get that prosecutor friend of yours to order his arrest, find the nearest secret detention facility, and let you have at it. I'm sure the consular office will be especially impressed that we asked if he was a god."

"At least you can still make a joke." Morgana's tail swished, and his eyes narrowed. "We need to ask him about Hastur, see how he reacts. If it's suspicious, then yes, we need to act. I won't let him take my best friend in the world from me."

"Then we interrogate him, " Morgana said. "Discover everything he knows about the supernatural and why he's here. Before we get to Inaba would be ideal since we have no idea what Hastur has planned there. You do the interrogation and Akira translates."

 _Interrogation? See, you're becoming more your old self every moment. Don't you wish you could still just order a squad of officers to do your bidding?_

Pain throbbed behind Sae's eyes. "It's not an interrogation. It's an interview." The distinction seemed suddenly vitally important. "We can't force him to talk to us if he doesn't want to. This may all be coincidence. Our priority is determining whether that's true."

"Of course." Akira's voice softened. "Everything on the up and up, minimal chance of a false confession. We just need to get him alone and ask him if he's ever heard of Hastur outside of a horror story. He saw Leviathan. If we're wrong and he is just some eccentric professor, he'll be glad to help us."

"But if we aren't wrong, then we let him know that we know what he is. No need to give up an advantage if we don't have to." Morgana's expression was a blend of pleading and hopeful as he looked at her. "This is your area of expertise, Ms. Niijima."

"We need a way to bring up Hastur in the source of an ordinary conversation." Sae frowned. There were always ways to make a subject say what you wanted. The trick was getting them to think about what you wanted, guiding their thoughts like rats in a maze so they didn't wander off thinking about what they had done last Tuesday when you wanted a description of the getaway car but not actually tainting those memories. "And twentieth century literature isn't exactly the weather."

"Yeah, sounds like something Akira would be asked about in class. Or on one of those quiz shows."

Quiz show. Quiz. Trivia Sae snapped her fingers. "That's it! We arrange for there to be a question on Hastur during trivia night, watch his reaction, and then bring it up with him and go from there." She sobered. "But we would need to get access to the questions."

Akira crossed his arms. "I could just bribe one of the stewards. Tell him my girlfriend is a big Lovecraft fan. What? It's for charity!"

Sae glared at him. "Just don't spend too much. It's a miracle you got your savings back the first time."

"Don't worry. It's a good plan." Akira cleared his throat. "The play's the thing wherein we'll catch the conscience of the king."

"What play?"

Shakespeare? You know when Hamlet puts on a play to—nevermind." The smile he gave her was real and sent a bolt of electricity racing through Sae. "I'm going to enjoy beating you at trivia, Empress."

Sae returned his smile and hold on to the sound of the codename like a charm.


End file.
